No Man's Sky Serves Live Service Master Class As Steam Reviews Tip Into 'Very Positive'

[Cpt.Jank]

It's no secret among gamers that No Man's Sky had a rocky launch. When the game launched over eight years ago, it was nearly universally slammed by gamers for its lack of completion and failure to deliver on lofty goals. Since then, though, the game's developer, Hello Games, has issued several updates, adding content and improving mechanics to a point where most consumers—at least those on Steam—are apparently happy with the state of No Man's Sky.

According to SteamDB, in January 2017, just three months after No Man's Sky launched, it had more than twice as many negative Steam reviews as positive. That situation started to change in around July 2018, when a spike in positive reviews rolled in after the nearly revolutionary No Man's Sky Next update. At that point, No Man's Sky still had a roughly 50-50 split between positive and negative reviews, but it was already trending upwards after the initial wave of just over 55,000 negative reviews. Since then, with every major update, the number of cumulative positive reviews seemed to climb a little more. As of today, however, No Man's Sky has an 81% positive review rating on Steam, having recently passed the 80% threshold to be considered "Very Positive."



The news of No Man's Sky's long-term success after it flopped at launch comes shortly after news that Ubisoft disbanded the development team behind Prince of Persia The Lost Crown just 10 months after its somewhat disappointing commercial performance. In a similar vein, Sony recently axed its newest hero shooter, Concord, mere weeks after launch, due to abysmal reviews and player counts. With No Man's Sky, however, Hello Games sort of proved that a dedicated development team that takes feedback and implements changes can turn things around, even if it takes a while.

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[wolf]

Look I can applaud their commitment to improving the game and delivering(?) on the promises made, and perhaps now it's actually even better than what was first promised... But a master class? wouldn't a master class start with the game not launching in such a terrible state? They wouldn't be so improved if the launch wasn't so bad, but man I'd call it more a cautionary tale in how not to launch a game than a master class in running a live service game.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Look I can applaud their commitment to improving the game and delivering(?) on the promises made, and perhaps now it's actually even better than what was first promised... But a master class? wouldn't a master class start with the game not launching in such a terrible state? They wouldn't be so improved if the launch wasn't so bad, but man I'd call it more a cautionary tale in how not to launch a game than a master class in running a live service game.

Yeah, this game being "forgiven" lead to every other studio deciding that releasing unfinished trash and taking years to complete it (hello halo infinite) was perfectly fine and consumers would have no issue with it. It doesnt fix the fact this game was sold on false marketing, still is frankly (steam's screenshots still show the beta UI that never launched). and that if you count pre dev this game has now been in development for 12 YEARS. And frankly, its another sandbox craft=em-up. Reminds me a lot of starforge, and not in a good way.

Hopefully Sean learns his lesson and keeps his mouth shut on the next game, and lets a PR guy handle advertisement.

You want a "masterclass" in running a live service game? Fortnite. There you go. NMS is the glue eating special kid int he back that got no-child-left-behind-ed into the upper grades because we cant hold anyone back.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I don't think NMS was a great game when it launched. It was certainly missing aspects that people were expecting to have and that certainly did suck. With that aside, it was a solid exploration space game. Many places to explore, lots to see and aside from a few technical issues I had to get mods for, I'd say it was well worth the $50 I paid to spend 50-60 hours playing it.

It is a completely different game now compared to the vanilla version, so much so that controls I remember having were changed/moved/adjusted, there is base building, actual co-op and so much more that I'd have to spend another 20+ hours just to relearn the basics and then some for everything else they added to the game.

I think it's impressive how much extra time and money they put into the game to make it what it is today. The game is on the list of co-op games my brother and I want to get playing, but who knows when that will even be with all the games we already have.

 

[Fouquin]

Look I can applaud their commitment to improving the game and delivering(?) on the promises made, and perhaps now it's actually even better than what was first promised... But a master class? wouldn't a master class start with the game not launching in such a terrible state? They wouldn't be so improved if the launch wasn't so bad, but man I'd call it more a cautionary tale in how not to launch a game than a master class in running a live service game.

It's pretty simple: it's both. One does not exclude the other.

 

[Lew Zealand]

A lot more underpromising and emphasis on Early Access could have made NMS closer to a "Master Class" but that's not how it went.

You want a "masterclass" in running a live service game? Fortnite. There you go.

Agreed. Fortnite still amazes me that it's doing so well and damn if they haven't been doing it right from the start ~6 years ago.

 

[wolf]

It's pretty simple: it's both. One does not exclude the other.

Gonna have to agree to disagree there

 

[eidairaman1]

Mediocrity seems to be the standard game devs go by today since all seem to suffer consolitis

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

Master Class in sandbox type game sure
Master Class in Story line, no way much too short.

 

[Hyderz]

maybe ubisoft can learn from this company

 

[nguyen]

Well I guess the game will be free once its development has finished

 

[Legacy-ZA]

I love this game, can't wait for my new 5080/5070Ti. This game has big VRAM issues though, as soon as you hit the ceiling, performance tanks right through the floor. They made major progress with this game, it nice to kick back with a glass of wine, traverse through space and explore a little.

 

[TheDeeGee]

maybe ubisoft can learn from this company

Ubisoft goes as far as to require DLC to play the main game.

Naah, they're done next year.

 

[Prima.Vera]

How's going with the Star Citizen? )) Is it in pre-alfa yet?

 

[Chomiq]

How's going with the Star Citizen? )) Is it in pre-alfa yet?

Nah, they need few more billions for that. Make sure you buy some extra ships

 

[z1tu]

You want a "masterclass" in running a live service game? Fortnite. There you go. NMS is the glue eating special kid int he back that got no-child-left-behind-ed into the upper grades because we cant hold anyone back.

Are we really comparing Epic Games Studios to Hello Games? Yeah, they underdelivered and botched the launch but let's not compare apples to oranges.

 

[Hakker]

Look I can applaud their commitment to improving the game and delivering(?) on the promises made, and perhaps now it's actually even better than what was first promised... But a master class? wouldn't a master class start with the game not launching in such a terrible state? They wouldn't be so improved if the launch wasn't so bad, but man I'd call it more a cautionary tale in how not to launch a game than a master class in running a live service game.

It's a master class in redeeming themselves and actually fixing the game. Standing behind their product.

Sure it shouldn't have been released when it was (had a lot to do with Sean Murray doing a serious impersonation of Peter Molyneux during PR), but that was major pressure from Sony seeing dollar signs. The point is they actually fixed their game and there are only a few willing to do that. CD Project Red fixed a bad Cyberpunk 2077 launch as well. Sure the PS4 and XBone were beheaded but again more investors wanting it done no matter the consequences.

Many other games just get ignored or beheaded when it isn't all great and then they move on with another thing, but they stuck to their game and really fixed it and added even more than that. That is what the master class is about.

 

[pcminirace]

How's going with the Star Citizen? )) Is it in pre-alfa yet?

ha ha ha ha ; )

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Are we really comparing Epic Games Studios to Hello Games? Yeah, they underdelivered and botched the launch but let's not compare apples to oranges.

Are we really calling No Mans Sky a "Live Service Master Class"? Yeah? Then it's an apt comparison to compare it to an actual masterclass in live service games that DIDNT totally botch its launch and didnt have to rely on Sony's support for years to fix their software.

If Sony didnt own them, this launch would have destroyed hello games. There's no way they could have worked on the game for years, with the newer larger team, and kept all the updates free to create the NMS we know today without the backing of Sony.

 

[pcminirace]

When NMS was about to be released, I told a coworker about the expectations there were about the game and how good it looked. He replied that there was a lot of hype. I also told him about the expectations about Star Citizen. He replied that it was going to be the game of the year. He was a sponsor of a LOL team and his opinion was important to me. At first, I bought NMS at a discount after the initial debacle. It was one of my best investments. Thanks Hello Games. The coworker left the company. I would love to see him again to tell him to his face... Suck it up. ; )))))

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

How's going with the Star Citizen? )) Is it in pre-alfa yet?

lol. What’s the state of that money pit these days?

 

[Vayra86]

I played NMS at launch, the whole idea of it really appealed to me. I wanted to love the game. I did love the game... for the first 30 minutes. And then the issues started showing. Butt ugly and non responsive aliens and AI ships. The game's procedural tricks quickly becoming a pattern and somewhat predictable. The slog of farming and levelling things. The frankly hideous graphics and noob mistakes in design like clipping errors and the awful consolified hold to interact on everything. The sense of discovery still kept me going though, for a good 50 hours, then I burned out. Returning to the game later never changed that.

Most of those issues are still in the game. Ship combat is better, but still not really enjoyable, one might call it functional now. Procedural generation still doesn't really surprise all too often, except when you land on a unique seed with special stuff in it meant for the story, or when the color palette and the environment line up to be a beautiful match; a rare event, since much more often you're in a clown show of colors. You can build bases now and gather tons of shit for them, so the game 'has purpose / goals' now, one might say, but it still bores the shit out of me faster than completing a single task.

To me NMS is still a game that's great if you're fresh into it, the 'firsts' are great experiences. And after that? The formula, the concept is dead to me. It feels aimless, despite all of its possible goals, perhaps in part because of its procedural background. You just know there's an infinite amount of combinations to land onto, but why would you want to? The actual gameplay is still very basic, rather clunky, and not quite fun - and certainly not as immersive as you'd want it to. The game looks cartoony and that hurts it. Another issue is that up to this day there is heavy LOD/texture pop in, the celestial bodies are still fake, space is still 'fake', there's no real idea of distance or speed or positioning in it. Overall, the whole simulation basically still sucks monkey balls, especially for a game that sells itself on being a simulator.

So yeah... Master class? I beg to differ. The game's beyond saving, but sure, they do push a lot of post release content out.

Are we really calling No Mans Sky a "Live Service Master Class"? Yeah? Then it's an apt comparison to compare it to an actual masterclass in live service games that DIDNT totally botch its launch and didnt have to rely on Sony's support for years to fix their software.

If Sony didnt own them, this launch would have destroyed hello games. There's no way they could have worked on the game for years, with the newer larger team, and kept all the updates free to create the NMS we know today without the backing of Sony.

A real live service or post release master class to me is Starcraft, Warcraft 3...

Released in a good state, brought to perfection post release, and supported by a super solid game concept. And let's recall the fact you paid your 50 bucks for those games - ONCE - and never had to open your wallet again, only when they released expansions that basically gave you a whole new game on top of the game. And here's the kicker, Blizzard could apparently just pay all those Bnet servers for you too on that money. Not a year, or two years, but many, many years worth of it. Somehow we lost that along the way, in an era where Moore's Law was making computing cheaper every year? Strange, strange indeed!

And here we are in 2024, some decades later, cheering about the odd game that doesn't go to absolute shit post launch, but instead starts at absolute shit and becomes a functional product. Not good or great, but functional. Call me a pessimist, but man we've sunk deep.

lol. What’s the state of that money pit these days?

When I try to run this, the game won't even install. The launcher looks nice, I guess. I wonder if things have changed now that W11 24H2 is out in the wild officially...

Nope!

It's pretty simple: it's both. One does not exclude the other.

Well I guess its a matter of perspective. If you manage to still not entirely match your statements of what the game was going to be a good EIGHT years post launch, something's fundamentally screwed in people's heads.

Its even worse when we then applaud this developer for still not quite living up to its projected vision. Because NMS is still NMS. They just added a lot of features to it, but at its core the game hasn't changed much, still suffering from a lot of the same issues.

 

[Jeager]

#neverforget

 

[Lew Zealand]

Most of those issues are still in the game. Ship combat is better, but still not really enjoyable, one might call it functional now. Procedural generation still doesn't really surprise all too often, except when you land on a unique seed with special stuff in it meant for the story, or when the color palette and the environment line up to be a beautiful match; a rare event, since much more often you're in a clown show of colors. You can build bases now and gather tons of shit for them, so the game 'has purpose / goals' now, one might say, but it still bores the shit out of me faster than completing a single task.

To me NMS is still a game that's great if you're fresh into it, the 'firsts' are great experiences. And after that? The formula, the concept is dead to me. It feels aimless, despite all of its possible goals, perhaps in part because of its procedural background. You just know there's an infinite amount of combinations to land onto, but why would you want to? The actual gameplay is still very basic, rather clunky, and not quite fun - and certainly not as immersive as you'd want it to. The game looks cartoony and that hurts it. Another issue is that up to this day there is heavy LOD/texture pop in, the celestial bodies are still fake, space is still 'fake', there's no real idea of distance or speed or positioning in it. Overall, the whole simulation basically still sucks monkey balls, especially for a game that sells itself on being a simulator.

This has been my exact experience for a few years now. Install, play, get bored in a few hours with the concept for the same reasons, and uninstall. A year later after a few more game updates I try again and the cycle repeats.

 

[z1tu]

Are we really calling No Mans Sky a "Live Service Master Class"? Yeah? Then it's an apt comparison to compare it to an actual masterclass in live service games that DIDNT totally botch its launch and didnt have to rely on Sony's support for years to fix their software.

If Sony didnt own them, this launch would have destroyed hello games. There's no way they could have worked on the game for years, with the newer larger team, and kept all the updates free to create the NMS we know today without the backing of Sony.

They also wouldn't have overpromised and underdelivered if they didn't have the Sony backup. I am also skeptical about this so called Sony backup after all these years post launch since games like Concord were cut almost immediately even though they had a launch that was not nearly as bad as NMS.