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Hello Games Received Death Threats Over 'No Man's Sky' (theguardian.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the very-unsatisfied-customers dept.

The Guardian revisits the disastrous 2016 launch of the massive open-universe videogame No Man's Sky, in a new interview with company director Sean Murray: "I've never liked talking to the press. I didn't enjoy it when I had to do it, and when I did it, I was naive and overly excited about my game. There are a lot of things around launch that I regret, or that I would do differently." He is reluctant to relive the particulars of what happened in the weeks and months following No Man's Sky's release in August 2016 ("I find it really personal, and I don't have any advice for dealing with it," he says), but it involved death threats, bomb threats sent to the studio and harassment of people who worked at Hello Games on a frightening scale. They were in regular contact with Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan police... "I remember getting a death threat about the fact that there were butterflies in our original trailer, and you could see them as you walked past them, but there weren't any butterflies in the launch game. I remember thinking to myself: 'Maybe when you're sending a death threat about butterflies in a game, you might be the bad guy....'"

Despite the controversy, No Man's Sky sold extremely well, and plenty of its players have stuck by it. A year after release, when Hello Games released the Atlas Rises update, about a million people showed up to play, and the average playtime was 45 hours.... It is still recognisable as the lonely, abstractly beautiful space-exploration game I played in 2016, but three big updates have added a lot more. It is now definitely a better game, with much more to do and a clearer structure... Now you can also construct bases, drive around in vehicles and -- as of next week -- invite other players to explore with you, in groups of four. You can crew a freighter together, or colonise a planet with ever-expanding constructions.
"You are still a tiny speck in an infinite universe," writes the Guardian. "it's just that now, you have some company." Murray describes it as a "Star Trek away team vibe."

In another interview, Murray concedes that during the five years they'd spent in development, "We talked about the game way earlier than we should have talked about the game.... "

15 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Internet Threats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Internet threats are not credible.

    And yet so long as we effectively do nothing about them, they will continue. Explicit threats of physical harm should be at least ticketed.

  2. Bombs over butterflies? by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe when you're sending a death threat about butterflies in a game, you might be the bad guy....

    I assumed it was about the horridly racist & misogynistic title. And it would have been totally justified too!

    (AmiMoJo is up on blocks)

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Bombs over butterflies? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'll say the same thing about this issue as I did about the recent ArenaNet controversy: there are two part to the No Man's Sky issue.

      The first part: No matter how you try to spin things, Murray out and out lied about what features would be in the game, and showed mocked-up videos that purported to show features of the game that, even today, fall, far far short of the promises. And there was no retraction about those missing features until people purchased the game and found they weren't there.

      The second part is some in the gaming public's stupid over-reaction to things like this. Just like with Jessica price, whatever the reason for the outrage, there's no excuse for the level of vitriol heaped on these people in the form of harassment and death threats. Complaining in a public forum is one thing, especially since it involved a non-trivial amount of a purchase price, but death threats? So, yes, this sort of harassment happens to men as well as women. Let's not forget that in future conversations.

      What really kills me is that No Man's Sky was not a terrible game. Not a great one, but it showed a lot of promise. But it was ridiculously over-hyped, over-priced, and over-promised. Nothing is going to live up to that.

      I'm an independent game developer myself, working for an eventual release of my own game, so I'm sort of sympathetic in some ways, but perhaps even less so in others. What Murray did was breach trust with the public. Once lost, it's going to be extremely difficult to win that trust back. I'd like to think I wouldn't need that lesson taught to me at this point in my life, but I thank Murray for emphatically re-inforcing those principles.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:Bombs over butterflies? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      (AmiMoJo is up on blocks)

      Meh.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Bombs over butterflies? by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just like with Jessica price, whatever the reason for the outrage, there's no excuse for the level of vitriol heaped on these people in the form of harassment and death threats. Complaining in a public forum is one thing, especially since it involved a non-trivial amount of a purchase price, but death threats? So, yes, this sort of harassment happens to men as well as women. Let's not forget that in future conversations.

      In the long history of stuff like this there's usually 4 groups of people. The ones pissed off and who want to bitch. The ones that rally around the person(s) being attacked, in this case it was fans rallying around Deroir(fans really didn't like price or her hostile attitude towards fans - she burnt bridges there). For those that don't know he's a huge name in the GW community. So much so that he has an NPC named after him, people look to him for early lore/content changes, and so on. He also gets intrack development info from the developers above her for public reception. Then there's the people who jump in because of whatever social justice reason to support the "poor weak female who can't take being called out." The last group are the 3rd party trolls, who don't care and are out to fan the flames and fuck with everyone. And those are your "for the luzl shit stains."

      Remember the studies over the last 4 years? Both men and women receive harassment, death threats, and abusive sexual tweets equally. Men are more likely to get violent tweets. Women are more likely to get tweets based around some sexual identifier. And women are the most likely to be the ones engaging in that sexual based harassment. The only area where women more likely to see more abuse is stalking, and the studies seem to agree that again women are the most vicious ones when stalking another.

      The old parable "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" isn't just a tale. It's something that civilizations risen and fallen have seen in action. A women is more likely to use the knives in the back(or metaphorically) texts/reputation stabbing in the back. Work in ANY female dominated environment and you see this very often. A man is more likely to confront the accuser, and get into a physical fight over it, they're unable to talk it out.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    4. Re:Bombs over butterflies? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Creators have used the internet to get closer to fans and involve them more directly in their work. Fans feeling some connection to or ownership of the game/movie/book helps sales.

      The problem is that some fans take it too far, and start to feel entitled. They get upset when decisions are made that they don't like, or when things fail to live up to their expectations. See the harassment of Star Wars actors as an example, and not just the new bunch either - Carrie Fisher got it too.

      Back in the day guys like Peter Molyneux were just the same, massively over-promising and under-delivering. Difference was that there was distance between them and the players, and people just returned their games or stopped buying them.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Not cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just because they lied and stole at such a massive scale does not give anyone the right to make death threats. They should be threating them with legal action not violence. I canâ(TM)t believe however, that this author thinks that just because people used the crap they purchased that things are ok. The game still isnâ(TM)t at the point where they promised. Thatâ(TM)s the developers fault. These people used Amazon, Walmart and Target as a kickstarter platform. Talk about death threats, but donâ(TM)t paint them as innocent of any crime.

    1. Re:Not cool by lgw · · Score: 2

      GOG is indeed awesome. And I can only hope you learned your lesson about pre-ordering games. Or did you turn right around and crowd-fund Star Citizen?

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  4. Sony is complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I bought digitally and Sony wouldn't allow me to return the game based on false advertising. A chargeback would've gotten my account suspended. I just pirate everything now.

  5. Re:People don't like... by fazig · · Score: 2

    Are you sure about that? Maybe take a loot at the numbers on this site here: https://robertsspaceindustries...
    No question, Hello Games lied about a lot of features of the game as far as the release version goes. But they have been continuing to develop and expand the game in scope and features. And all that without asking for another penny of their customers for expansions or by adding micro transactions and so forth. With the update in 3 days the game is supposed to finally get its multi-player feature that lets you play together with friends and random people.

  6. Re: That will cause more murders. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you are seriously upset about a video game to the point you are threatening someone you are a fucking loon.

    There is absolutely no excuse to threaten anyone over a video game.

    I shall repeat: a video game.

    Got it? Now go take your meds, see your doctor about a higher dose and sign up for extra group therapy anger management sessions.

    Video game.

  7. The Guardian is trash by inking · · Score: 2

    Despite the controversy, No Man's Sky sold extremely well, and plenty of its players have stuck by it.

    That is a cute, Guardian. Are you sure it is not that there was a controversy BECAUSE No Man’s Sky sold extremely well (on preorders based upon the lies that this piece of human garbage perpetrated for years before the release). Also, “stuck buy it”, as seen by the glowing reviews it received upon release. I don’t know who is more full of crap at this point, Sean or the author.

  8. Re:No they didn't by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Multiple sources say that Facebook confirmed that the message is real.

    http://thehill.com/policy/tech...

    http://nymag.com/selectall/201...

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

    https://www.theglobeandmail.co...

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor...

    I guess you have a Pastebin or a blog or something that says otherwise... But rather than argue, it might be easier to wait until his trial to see what evidence is presented. Doubtless Facebook will have provided logs etc.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  9. A game for the adults, not the junevile by whiplashx · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The fan boys are just that... boys. NMS is for men and women who love the idea of space exploration.

    As an adult (35 year-old) AAA developer who has worked on some of the best rated space games of all time... Let me tell you, No Man's Sky is a treasure. It's a game-making achievement. I am a game dev, and I studied NMS deeply. These tools and tricks have existed for only about 15 years and never in the same product before to such a high quality.

    There's not very much that hits my quality bar, but I put at least 40 hours in. That means, it's an immense accomplishment for Hello games.

    The juvenile can cry all day about 'promises'. It doesn't make a difference. What was delivered is pure gold.

    1. Re:A game for the adults, not the junevile by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're looking at it from a different angle than most gamers. You enjoy it as a developer achievement, something few other people really care about. Let me explain.

      I develop hardware on the side. It's a bit of a pet project of mine and from time to time I watch what others develop. And someone came up with a really nifty design for a tiny web server in hardware. It was a beauty. Great craftsmanship, well designed, tweaked and perfected, hardware and firmware extremely optimized, hand crafted assembler code to get it to speed on what should have been a too weak IC to run it.

      I showed it to a friend and his only comment was "Could be done on a RasPi, and cheaper". I tried to explain the amazing work behind it, he didn't care. He cared about the result. Nothing else.

      Same here. Yes, it may be a great development achievement. But people playing it don't care. They want a game. As far as they're concerned, it could be oompa-loompas drawing 50 pictures per second.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.