While it seems like a done deal that Hello Games’ space exploration game No Man’s Sky will be among this year’s most disappointing games, support from the developers has thankfully not disappeared entirely. Communication from Hello Games on social media almost completely evaporated after the game’s rocky launch, with its last tweet coming on August 27th. But today a few messages were sent out, as well as an update, version 1.09, for the PC and PlayStation 4.
The update came as a surprise, with no announcement coming before it, and that’s probably because it doesn’t add any new features to the game. Instead, it’s focused on bug-fixing and making the game more stable on all platforms.
If you missed it we posted a brief development update for No Man's Sky here…https://t.co/HcdEttQJUK
— Hello Games (@hellogames) September 23, 2016
Hello Games, and their founder Sean Murray, have been in full damage control mode ever since the launch of No Man’s Sky. One of the biggest post-launch backlashes in gaming history hit them, with rampant accusations that Hello Games had misled them about what exactly the game was. The vague presentations created a mysterious atmosphere around the game, which tied in extremely well with the game’s themes of space-exploration and diving headfirst into the unknown.
Unfortunately, a huge number of features were teased, heavily implied, and in some cases promised, features that were nowhere to be seen in the final product. Within hours two players on game streaming site Twitch had located the exact same place in their galaxy, a feat Sean Murray had claimed was almost mathematically impossible. Murray had previously teased (on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert no less) that players could actually meet, but that the odds of such a thing happening were incredibly small due to the immense nature of the game’s galaxy (the rumored 18 quintillion planets). Sadly, the players who found each other could not see each other, at which point Murray made the following tweet:
Two players finding each other on a stream in the first day – that has blown my mind
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 10, 2016
The internet has since made this tweet quite famous. The phrase “that has blown my mind” can be found almost anywhere people jokingly discuss the failures of No Man’s Sky ever since. Murray hasn’t made a tweet since August 18th.
Despite a severe drop-off in active players shortly after release, the hype surrounding the game almost certainly made it a success, although it throws the future of Hello Games into doubt, given how distrustful the gaming community will be of them from here on out. Nevertheless, support for No Man’s Sky continues, and Murray previously said that such features as base building and owning space freighters were in progress. Here are the official patch notes for update 1.09.
Featured Image via Flickr/BagoGames
