When Polygon reached out, the culture and video game site was told, by someone apparently posing as lead developer Sean Murray, that "The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down. We have not been coping well."

Both Kotaku and Polygon received the following email:

"No Man's Sky was a mistake. I have contacted you because the silence from Hello Games has been unwarranted and unprofessional. The community has asked me to speak up, and I have a confession to make. The game was simply unfinished upon arrival. Our hand was forced by not only Sony, but the community as well. The constant harassment and absolute gross misconduct on the community's part has made it hard to fulfill our artistic vision, while the pressure from Sony to release the game as soon as possible forced us to cut key features. I want to apologize for what we did not deliver on, as the game does not meet up to what our artistic vision was. However, we do wish that the community was more understanding of our situation. Many people have asked for refunds despite our promise to continually improve and update No Man's Sky. We are just a small studio that has poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this project. The complete lack of respect when it comes to the work we have done absolutely saddens not only myself, but the team as well. We want to improve the game to the point we dreamed of it being and beyond. I hope everyone affected understands, Sean Murray"

And then, Murray began tweeting from his personal account that there was a server hack, chiding that the team was watching Mr. Robot episodes to help find a solution.

If anything was a mistake, it was using Linked In without 2FA. — Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016

Kotaku writes that the tweets in question were sent via a linked account on your college professor's favorite social networking site.

.@NoMansSky 100% not hacked anymore... obviously those mails and that tweet were fake. Back to work 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 — Hello Games (@hellogames) October 28, 2016

When No Man's Sky came out this summer it was met with a heap of backlash. Players have incited investigations over false advertising, claiming the game they bought wasn't what they'd been promised. The game's subreddit was shuttered after its moderator calling it a "hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion." It's since been reopened, but the rage has metastisized into more nefarious forms like today's hacks and campaigns to lower the game's Steam rating. Imagine what could happen if the perpetrators put this type of effort into doing good for the world.

We've reached out for additional information and will update this post should it arrive.