9 HN users recommended this documentary9 months2020–2025score 11
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Frequently recommended as an entertaining account of a failed launch and recovery, especially in threads about Star Citizen and over-promising.
Internet Historian tells the story of No Man's Sky, from its over-hyped and badly received launch to years of updates by Hello Games that redeemed the game. It is a long, comedic mini-documentary.
“surprisingly a well told, heart-warming (albeit quite long) video telling the story of No Man's Sky” (HN, 2020)
Speaking of pre-release hype for over-promised scope, Internet Historian's "The Engoodening of No Man's Sky" is surprisingly a well told, heart-warming (albeit quite long) video telling the story of No Man's Sky, how it got so hyped, and the good-faith steps the developers took to do their best to make good on their promises. [this video]
Well-told story of No Man's Sky hype and developer redemption
Watching Star Citizen has been a hobby for me like watching a train wreck is painfully slow motion. It came about at the same time as the revival of a beloved franchise Elite in the form of Elite Dangerous. ED didn't have the budget SC does but it stuck to quite narrow development goals and shipped years ago. It's progressively added updates, patches and expansions since. No Man's Sky is vaguely in the same vein and had a terrible launch (I highly recommend this video [1]) but, to their credit, Hello Games has plugged away at NMS adding more content and updates to the point where it's an enjoyable experience now and has a loyal fan base. But SC? By God. It's like a progenitor for NFT scams. Constantly raising even more money by selling limited run ships (for a game that still basically doesn't exist). I'd occasionally see a presentation on some new system under development (eg the prison system) and I always thought "why on Earth are they talking about this before they even have a core game?" It's an object lesson that too much money can be a bad thing. It's so easy for an embarrassment of riches to lead to hopeless feature creep and not really delivering anything. I'm honestly surprised so many still drink the Kool-Aid on SC. I really wonder where all the money has gone (and how much is actually gone). [1]: [this video]
I'm super happy for these guys. They really have struggled with donations for many years. It's nice to see them get the bag. For those commenting on the sales drop off, it is a problem for AAA titles that a half-finished product gets sold to the public and then abandoned because it's easier to just move onto the next thing. But I want to counter that with the story of No Man's Sky. I highly recommend the Internet Historian video on it [1]. The short version is for various reasons the game over-promised and under-delieved on launch but Sean and HelloGames have now spent years continuing to develop the game with free and significant updates. I can only imagine this still drives sales growth or it wouldn't be sustainable. But it's really repaired HG's and NMS's reputation. NMS has a real cult following now. And then of course there's Minecraft whose long tail of sales is truly mind-blowing. [1]: [this video]
Story of No Man's Sky's failed launch and years of updates
Internet Historian made an amazing documentary on how the game's changed over the years [1]. They're still making massive changes to the game! If it's been years since you played it, you should give it a try. There have been a lot of bug/crash fixes, new mechanics, even redoing some core game systems (I think they recently made some big changes to planet generation). [1] [this video]
Documentary on how the game changed over the years
NMS had problems of a completely different character at launch. Once they fixed the bugs, added the features that were missing and did a lot of polish, people really like the game. It's very well-received now. Here's a short story of how and why it had a bad launch [this video] .
Why No Man's Sky launched badly and later recovered
Star Citizen is a cautionary tale about how too much money can be a curse. Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous came around at roughly the same time but Elite has been a complete game for years. Elite did things right in the sense that they released a complete game and added to it. I've seen videos on Star Citizen talking about new systems they're adding like being put in prison and escaping and all I can think of is that this sounds cool but why are you spending any effort on this before you have a core game? star Citizen development just seems to be completely unfocused with periodic sales of ships to top up the coffers. How much better could it have been had they decided on core features that were a complete game and then just added content releases every 6-12 months? For anyone who just wants to explore without the grittiness and over-realism of Elite Dangerous, check out No Man's Sky. Side note, there's a great Internet Historian video [1] on the redemption of NMS after over-promising on release. Also, I see another game that seems to be falling into the trap of being too ambitious before having core gameplay and that's Ashes of Creation, sadly. [1]: [this video]
Redemption of No Man's Sky after over-promising at release
I love Worms, but if there’s a runner-up for “Britain’s most tenacious indie games company” then surely it is Hello Games. They launched No Man’s Sky in 2016 to universal disappointment and fan outrage, but kept working on it post-launch (under extreme stress and with little income to speak of) for years until they met & exceeded fan’s original expectations. Gratified fans eventually paid to put up a “Thank you Hello Games” billboard on a road near their office. The whole story is incredible and worth your time: [this video]
Hello Games' post-launch journey with No Man's Sky
Yeah I got about 30 hours, paid about $30 (there have been many sales where its much cheaper - plus IIRC its on Xbox Game Pass now). Im more then happy at the cost/reward. Would seriously follow a new game by the same developer [1] the engoodening of No Man's Sky is a entertaining mini-doc on the game. [1]: [this video]
No Man's Sky is the poster child for turning a shitty launch into a success. You can really feel the passion of the staff at Hello Games in the current version of the game. It reminds me of the quote, which I'm about to butcher, that is along the lines of "People don't remember the problem, they remember how you dealt with the problem". If you haven't seen it, "The Engoodening of No Man's Sky" is a good review of the story. It's 5 years old now, and the engoodening hasn't stopped. [this video]
Good review of how a shaky launch became a success
Yes, they did go back. They basically used all the money they made from the hype and used it to make it real. Players bought them a billboard across from their office saying thank you. ( [link] ) See [this video] for one rendition of the story.
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