Why are people still romanticizing No Man’s Sky’s “redemption” arc?
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This might be unpopular, but it feels like the “redemption” story around No Man’s Sky has become more of a cultural comfort narrative than an honest look at what happened.
Let’s be real — most of those updates were just delivering delayed promises, not generosity. The game we were originally sold was missing a lot of advertised features, and Hello Games never actually apologized for lying. On top of that, every update brings more bugs and half-fixed systems, and the community acts like free beta testers for Light No Fire, while still framing it all as “passion” and “commitment.”
It’s like Hello Games built a shoddy, unfinished building, declared it open anyway, and then decided to use it as a testing ground for their next building — and somehow it wins “Best Ongoing Building” every year.
So why do people keep buying into this narrative? Because it’s a comfortable story? Or is it somekind of parasocial relationship going on there?
NMS made 78 million in 2016, this can't be compared to a failed AAA game or indies where devs walk away from financial failure, another emotional argument?
According to the number of upvotes, it seems that their angst is a reflection of the game industry in general. Hello Games had indeed performed to expectations by not walking away, but does that warrant mythologising the redemption arc? Even when the state of the game is buggy?
"and Hello Games never actually apologized for lying."
Good. I don't want a corporate apology. Apologies from companies literally mean nothing. What matters is your actions. They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions. No third party launcher or account needed. Can be played offline. You buy the game, you get the game. That is RARE these days.Should they have released the game in the first place? No. If you don't support that, then don't buy it. I don't really like that, so I bought it on sale for like $30 instead of its full price of $60, which in my opinion was worth it.
There are plenty of problems in the gaming industry right now, I think NMS's "redemption" arc is the least of your worries.
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This might be unpopular, but it feels like the “redemption” story around No Man’s Sky has become more of a cultural comfort narrative than an honest look at what happened.
Let’s be real — most of those updates were just delivering delayed promises, not generosity. The game we were originally sold was missing a lot of advertised features, and Hello Games never actually apologized for lying. On top of that, every update brings more bugs and half-fixed systems, and the community acts like free beta testers for Light No Fire, while still framing it all as “passion” and “commitment.”
It’s like Hello Games built a shoddy, unfinished building, declared it open anyway, and then decided to use it as a testing ground for their next building — and somehow it wins “Best Ongoing Building” every year.
So why do people keep buying into this narrative? Because it’s a comfortable story? Or is it somekind of parasocial relationship going on there?
NMS made 78 million in 2016, this can't be compared to a failed AAA game or indies where devs walk away from financial failure, another emotional argument?
According to the number of upvotes, it seems that their angst is a reflection of the game industry in general. Hello Games had indeed performed to expectations by not walking away, but does that warrant mythologising the redemption arc? Even when the state of the game is buggy?
I also feel weird about it. "omg they updated a lot blah blah." I believed them and loaded the game and it's boring AF. I just assumed it's a genre I didn't like but it feels like it's unworthy of praise for me too. You're not alone dawg.
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Of all the fucking things to be upset about across the entire world and this is your fight your gonna spend your limited resources on earth on? Starting shit online about a stupid topic to feel like you actually mean something today? You got some weird shit going on man and not the good kind IMO.
But first. Its not an arch like in a movie, its not a narrative. Its a complete story. The narrative to that story is subject to change but is still based around the actual events. Which played out redemptively at some point and is a part of the established history now.
Secondly. You are constantly asking for a logic to the emotion of it all over here and asking to have someone explain that to you like it's so easy. You are going to need to read some psychology if you want to validate your noticing/noting the parallels between nurturing and being a baby and vulnerability and all that and that making us susceptible to emotional attachment to free things given freely over a period of time if you want but stop asking here its not the time.
He felt bad about situation. You ever run a studio? Building? Never? Professional obligation mixed up with your personal human judgement? No? Fantastic then assume that its not all fun and promises get made for 1000 reasons. Nervousness. Overconfidence. Obligating yourself to do it later because you said you would. These are everyday practices in that area. He got his big boy pants on and went to the interviews and lied (read: manager promised). (Why he "promised" is subject to opinion and thus the "narrative" you suggested divides right there) 'Promising' like that, however, doesn't work well in that fan type of environment. And he felt bad about it. It actually really bothered him. We arent always who were trying to be. He fucked up. He let real people down by being impulsive. He stopped interviewing I think completely. And its likely mostly his fault that this all happened (unless the studio was talking to each other about those features and making unofficial promises internally which would help explain some of the false promises made)
That would have been the whole story if he/they had just walked. But it appears theyre just not that kind of people. Sean is, however, CLEARLY total shit at promising stuff
(and thus the twitter emojis to announce updates) But they could have wanted to do those features but probably also said don't tell the media that shit which happens all the time in studio productions. They're were likely things they didn't yet know they could do (independent studio and all) but wanted to do very badly and were literally working on. (Fuckin' Creatives you know? Amirightoramiright /being sarcastic here don't be too offended)So. The updates ARE the fucking apology bro
and a love letter to the whole embarrassing ordeal.Or at least they were for few years or however long it took them to add everything even VAGUELY promised that wasn't clearly "what are our intentions are for the game how is it supposed to feel" type talk. (That people hold him accountable for even now, like star wars nerds and George Lucas. Honestly that energy had to go somewhere
) Now its an entire, see how far we can push this game, sales are stable so why stop, corporate is just us anyways, Terraria-esqe love-of-the-game, the community has been good to us and they love us and that's how we love them back thing.But your social engagement consists mostly of this so I'm worried you don't really get emotions outside your own views and probably can't be trusted to change that big ol' galaxy brain style opinion of yours this but I'm sure trying here anyways, good practice if nothing else
"Of all the fucking things to be upset about across the entire world and this is your fight your gonna spend your limited resources on earth on?"
First sentence of your essay is ironic xD
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The sneering was only half intentional. And personaly i quite enjoy discussing things like this.
But i still strongly disagree with your view. Hello Games was small studio at the start, but they havent been ringing the indie bell for their game and in my opinion they havent stolen the limelight from indie devs. Games like Terraria and Stardew valley are still celebrated games and people are praising those games and the work devs have being doing with the updates.
Following your logic one could argue, that companies behind those games are not anywhere near the small indie teams people imagine them. And we should be angry for them too, because they take the spotlight from games like Dwarf Fortress and Project Zomboid, that have been passion projects for years before those earlier two even were concepts.
The main thing that makes No Man Sky different is that those succesfull indie games were good from the beginning, while NMS was horrible and borderline unsalvageable game, but the devs kept working on it and making it slowly better. A effort most companies wont do.
So in my opinion people should be happy and support Hello Games, because that shows to the other companies, that even if the first release of the game is bad, it is possible (and profitable) to keep making the game better.
Of course, if we lived in perfect world we could consider what HG is doing a bare minimum, but we live in a world where what they do is exceptional.
Also i strongly disagree about they doing minimun professionally. They have kept the now almost ten years old game playable, added vr, new console supports. If you want to see what minimal is take a look of Assasins Creed Unitys state in 2025.
Oh no, Hello Games didn't steal any limelight from anyone, they have been keeping their head down. That’s on the fanbase, the myth and the hype by inflating their achievements. I can respect the perseverance without mythologising it. Hello Games did right by continuing to improve their game — but that doesn’t erase how the industry and fan culture turn necessary professionalism into legend, nor should they turn a blind eye to the state of the game.
Secondly, one strike and you're out is a bad approach. Who on earth is going to fix the mess?But this is why we diverge – we should support them if LNF is a good game, all roads lead to Rome, I don’t think they need another redemption arc from us, right?
It is a simple remedy; do right by where they failed, namely, launching LNF without shenanigans, and let the work speak for itself; that’s the real redemption.
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"and Hello Games never actually apologized for lying."
Good. I don't want a corporate apology. Apologies from companies literally mean nothing. What matters is your actions. They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions. No third party launcher or account needed. Can be played offline. You buy the game, you get the game. That is RARE these days.Should they have released the game in the first place? No. If you don't support that, then don't buy it. I don't really like that, so I bought it on sale for like $30 instead of its full price of $60, which in my opinion was worth it.
There are plenty of problems in the gaming industry right now, I think NMS's "redemption" arc is the least of your worries.
"They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions"
These are the good practices in a sea of bad actors, but that's how the fans use Hello Games to attack the AAA industry by constantly misplacing and comparing it with AAA games, not to mention mythologising them, even though they have never asked for it. Once you recalibrate your perspective, you will see that long-term developments and updates are normal in indies; maybe that's where Hello Games belongs?
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I also feel weird about it. "omg they updated a lot blah blah." I believed them and loaded the game and it's boring AF. I just assumed it's a genre I didn't like but it feels like it's unworthy of praise for me too. You're not alone dawg.
Thanks
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I also feel weird about it. "omg they updated a lot blah blah." I believed them and loaded the game and it's boring AF. I just assumed it's a genre I didn't like but it feels like it's unworthy of praise for me too. You're not alone dawg.
I dont believe you know where the line is to forgive someone for having wronged you
Which is understandable imo
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"They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions"
These are the good practices in a sea of bad actors, but that's how the fans use Hello Games to attack the AAA industry by constantly misplacing and comparing it with AAA games, not to mention mythologising them, even though they have never asked for it. Once you recalibrate your perspective, you will see that long-term developments and updates are normal in indies; maybe that's where Hello Games belongs?
What the shit? Hello Games fans "attacking the triple a game studios? For what having both vast resources and terrible business practices?
Youre attacking Hello Games and in this post and defending what AAA devs?
This is starting to sound (and read) like AI-Slop LLMspeaking
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"They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions"
These are the good practices in a sea of bad actors, but that's how the fans use Hello Games to attack the AAA industry by constantly misplacing and comparing it with AAA games, not to mention mythologising them, even though they have never asked for it. Once you recalibrate your perspective, you will see that long-term developments and updates are normal in indies; maybe that's where Hello Games belongs?
What makes you so upset over people "attacking" the AAA industry? Most of the big AAA players release literal garbage, games filled with anti-consumer practices. Not only do they tend to release "unfinished" like No Mans Sky did, but they also have DRM, microtransactions, third party launchers + accounts that take your data. Who cares if they get attacked? I honestly wish people would do more.
I don't really understand what it is you have a problem with.
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What makes you so upset over people "attacking" the AAA industry? Most of the big AAA players release literal garbage, games filled with anti-consumer practices. Not only do they tend to release "unfinished" like No Mans Sky did, but they also have DRM, microtransactions, third party launchers + accounts that take your data. Who cares if they get attacked? I honestly wish people would do more.
I don't really understand what it is you have a problem with.
It’s a satire
I get that you are upset with AAA games. Honestly, I’ve managed to avoid them for a long time. But I think Hello games is not an ideal studio either; Murray did lie about the feature at release, the updates have only met minimum of professional standards, and 10 years later it is still a bland tofu of a space game, wrapped in years of technical debt, while NMS being a test bench for LNF as a fanbase look to the other way…they are doing ok…
I just find it funny that in a sea of garbage (not as a puddle), people will grab anything shiny and call it a diamond, while ignoring the gem cave by the shore and then ask, “What is wrong? Why are you laughing?”
The good devs never needed a redemption arc; never needed a cultural reframe to be good.
