Controversy Clocking Episode 7: No Man's Sky and a hype cycle gone off the rails

After almost three years of development, No Man’s Sky launched about a week ago and its overall reception has been quite mixed; the fallout from the game’s shortcomings has been all over the place and this is undoubtedly down to the title’s hype cycle. On PS4, the game is mostly functional but incredibly basic and on PC the port has been suffering from numerous technical issues. As a game, No Man’s Sky appears to be along the lines of Minecraft at a base level; it’s a survival game that focuses on the compelling nature of exploration and in this case it certainly capitalises on the popularity of the genre. But unlike Mojang’s indie smash hit, No Man’s Sky did not build and expand through a community who played the game in early access; instead it became a victim of the infamous cycle of overzealous hype and ultimate disappointment. We’ve seen this happen with other games before, but never has a specific title been built up so much before finally releasing. To give one example of how this hype grew, take a look at this issue of the UK magazine EDGE.

No Man’s Sky was the centrepiece of the magazine in September 2014 and it all started with the front cover and its three marketing buzzwords: “Epic, infinite, indie”. From that moment you’re intrigued by the game; what does it have to offer? What makes it such a highly anticipated title? As a cover game, EDGE also did an extensive feature on it including talks with the developer, building up the excitement even more, all the while having little close analysis or scrutiny of how the final game would be. Imagine this sort of coverage multiplied across numerous gaming outlets and circulation across social media. We had a game which dazzled the imagination without any kind of restraint or temperament of expectations; this is a recipe for disappointment.

The overall issue with the fanfare was that hype for No Man’s Sky was being built up exponentially before any concrete evidence was established over what the final product would be. We knew hardly anything about it and yet it was being held up as one of the biggest games of all time. On top of this, few media outlets attempted to find answers and Hello Games (particularly game director Sean Murray) seemed rather deflective of any specific questions. Sony also contributed to this cycle, touting the game as a key acquisition and one which would be a great showcase for the PlayStation 4. In the eyes of game developers and publishers, building up the hype is desirable; they want to build that excitement as much as humanly possible in the hope that consumers will run out and buy the game upon release. It’s convenient for them, but not much for the common consumer who builds up such lofty expectations for a single title.

Disappointment is the first reaction to an overhyped title when it finally arrives but unfortunately this has also resulted in some pretty nasty behaviour. Fanboyism reaches its most toxic levels when the people behind the abuse are in denial; it happened when the PlayStation 3 was struggling in its first two years and it also happened recently with DC’s cinematic universe taking a beating from film critics. With great hype comes a set of individuals so religiously devoted, near evangelic to a piece of media that they would relentlessly attack and abuse others online. There have been tales of abusive comments on both sides of the game and even a few instances of sites being taken down via DDOS (Denial of service) attacks, most notably Jim Sterling’s for his review of the game.

By July 2016 No Man’s Sky was sitting at the top of pre-order charts in the United States with 243,835 purchases in total according to VGChartz; it would stay there for another month before eventually releasing in August. This quickly eclipsed the sales of Hello Game’s previous title Joe Danger and its expansions. Yet again this comes back to the notion that pre-ordering games is a risky proposition, even more so for a game that many of us knew hardly anything about. Optimistically, No Man’s Sky could be a turning point, the moment where the gaming community turns against the notion of hype culture and tempers its expectations in the future. Hype and excitement building are part of any major piece of media, often more so for video games but it’s also important to have a constructive discussion, question a game before it arrives and most importantly, don’t get swept up in the excitement too much.