Sony on No Man's Sky: "It wasn't a great PR strategy…"

It's a game that released a while ago, in case you had forgotten. I don't blame you if you did.

Speaking to Eurogamer at the Tokyo Game Show, Shuhei Yoshida said: "I had the opportunity to play the game right before launch - and I restarted playing the game on launch day with the Day One patch - so I could see the struggle for the developers to get the game out in the state that they wanted."

Yoshida said that personally, he "really enjoyed" playing No Man's Sky but could appreciate why others might not feel the same way.

"I understand some of the criticisms especially Sean Murray is getting, because he sounded like he was promising more features in the game from day one.

"It wasn't a great PR strategy, because he didn't have a PR person helping him, and in the end he is an indie developer. But he says their plan is to continue to develop No Man's Sky features and such, and I'm looking forward to continuing to play the game."

Can't wait for their promised features that will cost money.

Thanks, Sean

What? It was a great PR strategy, the game sold a lot!

Now if he tries to release a new game after NMS...

The PR was good, the game just wasnt

They were able to spend less resources developing the game, and shipped an incomplete product to a few million people without much recourse.

Sounds like it was taken straight out of the Sony handbook to me. Great PR strategy if you want money.

I'm still playing it. It was always going to be a niche game and maybe it should have just been marketed to the niche fan base but I'm sure they didn't mind making a fortune off of it. I just hope they continue to update it and add new features. It needs more than it currently contains and I feel there is a lot more they could do with it. It's an excellent base game that just needs a lot more to do. Crafting your own freighters would be awesome for example.

I'm still playing it too. I think we're the only two people that "get" this game. I think we went in with the right expectations.

@n64dd: It's nothing but hate and fanboy moaning on this forum concerning the game but Neogaf's ot thread and reddit are full of people like us that appreciate the game.

I would like to see some more posts in this thread:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/coolest-stuff-youve-seen-in-no-mans-sky-33344420/#18

I love it.

Over 50 hours and I'm still 160,000 light years from the center.



I'm really digging the world Lore.

The Story of the Gek is pretty cool.

I'm down.

@Nuck81 said:

@mark1974 said:

@n64dd: It's nothing but hate and fanboy moaning on this forum concerning the game but Neogaf's ot thread and reddit are full of people like us that appreciate the game.

I would like to see some more posts in this thread:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/coolest-stuff-youve-seen-in-no-mans-sky-33344420/#18

I'm down.

Pic number 2 all day long please.

The game is at it's best when you look up at the sky to a planet yet to be discovered.

@n64dd said:

@Nuck81 said:

@mark1974 said:

@n64dd: It's nothing but hate and fanboy moaning on this forum concerning the game but Neogaf's ot thread and reddit are full of people like us that appreciate the game.

I would like to see some more posts in this thread:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/coolest-stuff-youve-seen-in-no-mans-sky-33344420/#18

I'm down.

Pic number 2 all day long please.

Sounds like he's trying to politely distance himself from the flop, a bit. There's no 'through thick and thin' in business.

Sean Murray deserves all the blame he gets but Yoshida pretending Sony doesn't deserve some too is laughable. They basically treated this game like a first party blockbuster for nearly 3 years and now that it flopped he tries to throw Hello Games under the bus as a little indie developer that couldn't handle PR. Without Sony's involvement it probably would have been a $30 game and never had so much unrealistic hype and expectations.

Sure, giving a pedestal for someone to lie on is shitty, but Sony didn't do the lying here. I agree with Shu on this

Of course it was a good PR strategy!

The game sold a lot despite how much Sean lied about it, and that the game was a glorified tech demo.

Heh. Wasted my money on this game e.e Hello Games finessed me out of my money. I hope they don't have the audacity to try to make a new game..

The game will be good. Eventually.

Was Sony in on development from the beginning? Or did they come in later? Either way, their involvement was a mistake. Hyped it too much. Should have been released as a beta or an in-development title, or just wait a bit longer.

A damn shame either way, the game has such potential and when all the mechanics work, it's quite an achievement.

See now that is great PR talk, by Yoshida.

"I understand some of the criticisms especially Sean Murray is getting, because he sounded like he was promising more features in the game from day one."

Notice he uses vague like terms. "because he SOUNDED like he was promising" LMAO No Shu, he flat out lied about what they game had in it.

That's not necessarily true, dude.

I can find you a lot of people posting in other places that are really enjoying Recore also. Doesnt change the accepted view that it's a mediocre game. NMS, from the review industry seems to be basically a first level good game. I think it's great you guys play what you like and decide what you value for yourselves. But others not liking it doesn't equate to all of it being fanboy moaning.

I disagree. At some point your own integrity is in question if you own the pedestal and don't do some checking and reeling in the nut lying on your pedestal. But that's business. Integrity isn't the focus. Profit is.

I'm still playing it as well. I went in expecting nothing much so I wasn't disappointed.

@NathanDrakeSwag: First time I've ever agreed with you I think :)

@cainetao11: why is its Sony fault Sean Murray lied?

If I drive you to the house you shoot and murder someone in I get charged as an accomplice. As you said, Sony gave him a pedestal. So Sony owned the pedestal that rose Murray's head above the crowd which got people to take notice and listen to his lies. But nowhere did Sony attempt to fact check or disseminate accurate info on this game they were publishing for their console. They were content to let the lies sell games and reap the rewards. Tell me how that makes them free from any blame?

@cainetao11: oh please stop, that is a shitty analogy. If you don't know someone is going to shoot someone when you drop someone off, you're not going to be an accomplice.

It's not Sony's job to babysit what developers do, especially their ones that aren't their first party.

So you're saying Sony was in a bubble and didn't hear the lies he was saying?

Don't ever tell me to stop dude. I'll post what I want. Don't read it.

@cainetao11: Yeah but what could Sony do? Only thing I can think of is force them to sell the game at $40 instead of $60. Maybe then the backlash wouldn't be so bad for Hello Games.

@cainetao11: two things

1) I don't think they know he was lying, because I don't think they know everything that's going on with a 15 person indie studio that's releasing a multiplatform game

2) Even if they knew, what are they supposed to do? They can't stop Murray from speaking to the media and going on Colbert.

By all means, post what you want. I just highly encourage you to use your brain while doing so. A shitty analogy about murder is a shitty analogy no matter how you spin it mate.

@Blabadon: Ok, so we're basically at a point where you think they didn't, I think they knew more than they will ever let on. I think MS knew Recore wasn't going to be a blow people away game. So they priced it at $40 to entice more sales. We have differing opinions.

As for the analogy you feel is stupid, I do not. I would still be questioned by police extensively and have my work cut out for in order to prove I had no inkling that you would commit murder. I would be detained and would have to convince authorities I had no clue of your intended actions. That's basically where we are with Sony here. Shu hasn't convinced me.

@cainetao11: let's meet halfway on this fam, Sony still is a big part of this memorable mess, but they don't deserve anywhere near the brunt Hello should get.

Being they were a publisher? Make sure the product they were using to hype their conferences and platform is legitimately what the developer is stating it is. I certainly keep an eye on my investments.

Lying about the game and showing things that you arent gonna do in the game is obviously not a good thing.

@mark1974: thanks! i was just starting to get bummed the other day about the radio silence in that thread

I apologize if I lead you to think I thought Sony should take massive blame here. I do not. But just like when I argued with StrongBlackWhine about SF5, its their platform and conferences and money investment. I would like to believe they keep a close eye on their investments. I certainly do.

"StrongBlackWhine"

God bless your soul you beautiful human being, I can't believe no one's said this before.

Been saying the game is shit since the day it was announced

x18 ultramegauberquintimilion times!

Who paid for Sean Murray to travel around the world promoting his game? Would that have been Sony's marketing department, by any chance?

Something tells me that they wouldn't have given a toss what was said about the game as long as it increased hype and sales. That's exactly what Sean did and Sony love him for destroying his reputation all for the sake of making Sony a shit ton of money.

Well Sony does have a point. They paid him to promote his game but it's not like anyone put a gun to his head and told him to lie about features that he knew weren't going to be in his game. Just because you're getting paid doesn't mean you should lose all your integrity. At the end of the day Sean Murray has no one to blame but himself for the fallout. If he was honest about what was going to be in the game from day one there wouldn't have been any backlash. NMS is a decent game by itself, what gets people mad about it is all the lies told by Sean Murray.

What I think is hilarious is that people still pre-order and crowdfund games after all these mishaps this gen of broken games, broken online, bad games, promised features that are left out. And then they get genuinely mad at the makers because they blew their money on a bad product.

How about you be patient and not give into the pre-order incentives or pre-release hype and wait for some reviews?

LOL I started using that when he was crying about Rise of the TR lol

True dat.

It sold just over 1.3 million worldwide with over 40+ million PS4 sold. O.k. sales for an overpriced Indie game. Not great though. If he can get ALL those promised features into the game and make it 10x's better, maybe gamers will give it a 2nd look. Just like how DriveClub and The Crew had their games patched and patched and now they both games are much better for it.

It's because it's a Sony PS4 game. If this was a Microsoft XBox One exclusive you would be bashing it into the ground in every thread on SW. That's a fact. Recore was a mess as well. Lots of bugs in that game. I actually cancelled my preorder after watching videos of all the bugs. Characters passing through scenery or getting stuck against rocks. What a joke. Will never pay full price for any of these unfinished games. Keep trolling Quadnite.

@blackace: I agree that fanboyism is the worst and so many here do the devils work and fanboy all day long. Maybe that plays a part, I cant speak for Quadknight. But I think fanboyism worked against this particular game much more than it worked for it. It's an alright game. For a person with sensibilities such as mine it's actually quite good but lacking in content. 70's metacritic score and a 7/10 here. That should not have been a big deal. It's the most boring and undramatic score a game can get. But look at all the drama it got anyways. I know nothing of recore. I haven't played it or taken a real interest in it. If some people like it I think that's awesome. I don't think hype matters and a game is what it is and should only be judged that way. All games get some kind of down grade before they are actually released. It's funny the way we all act shocked every time it happens. The worst thing about all of this is that the haters may keep this game from getting the updates it deserves.

That's what haters do. Hate a game before it even exists. Do you want an award?

I'll be there for you and this thread you created. If it ends up existing as only my personal blog about my own experiences I will keep posting to it. At least until a mod deems it a necro thread. Give us your experiences too if you keep playing it. This game deserves better than this thread right here and all the other hate filled ones like it. People act as if it is a 2/10 game or something.

@mark1974: Well said dude. All three above posts.

Its the nature of the beast in SW. This board was created so the individual platform boards could have peaceful discussions from the platform owners instead of people who don't own say an X1 always trolling the Xbox forum.

@cainetao11: Thank you my friend. It's ironic that this board was created to keep the rabble out of the more serious game discussions of the other boards but it became the popular choice and the only place to discuss video games and expect a response. That's a reflection of our hobby at the moment. I assume that's what Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo want us to do. Advertise for them for free.

And I get your previous point about not all detractors of this game being fanboys or haters. Some do have legitimate derision for this game. The developers were a bit shady about it to say the least. It just so happens that I like it despite that. I love space games. This one is a relatively good example of the genre. It's mostly PC elitists that wont accept that fact. And of course Xbox loyalists who do not get to play it. But I would be remiss to say there aren't more than a few Sony fanboys who also hate it. Although, if it had a higher score most of them would keep quiet about it.