Expectations of No Man’s Sky were built upon exaggerated claims and straight up lies and was immensely successful as a result. Sean Murray and Hello Games have pulled off the biggest con in gaming history and, more importantly, seem to have gotten away with it.

Ever since No Man’s Sky was first revealed at VGX in 2013, the hype train started and continued to gain unprecedented momentum right up until its release last month. I’ve never seen a game so highly anticipated as No Man’s Sky.

The chance of the game actually living up to the hype was essentially impossible. If it had met half of people’s expectations, it still would have been a pretty damn good game.

But the game that we ended up getting was an overwhelming disappointment to put it kindly. A culmination of over marketing and broken promises by the developer, Hello Games.

No Man’s Sky felt more like a glorified tech demo. In trying to make a technically impressive game, in the sense that everything is procedurally generated in an endless universe, the developer seemed to forget that a game needs to be fun to play.

It wasn’t surprising to hear that 90% of the player base stopped playing after just two weeks. The game also made headlines when Steam had to put a disclaimer on the store’s page about their refund policy. This user review on Steam summed it up perfectly:

Features that Sean Murray had referred to in interviews prior to the release, such as multiplayer functionality, the complexity of the combat and trading systems and many more were not in the game.

If consumers’ purchasing decisions were influenced by these claims then how is this not false advertising?

Where are the repercussions for this? Are there going to be any?

Probably not, which sends a dangerous message for other developers to go out and do the same without fear of any consequences.

If there is anything to be learned here from a consumer’s perspective, it is to stop preordering games. Wait until a review or two comes out so you can make an informed decision. It’s sad though. It’s almost as if we can’t afford to get excited about games anymore just in case we get let down.

It has been over 6 weeks since No Man’s Sky was released. The No Man’s Sky Twitter page has now been silent for 5 as they hide away from the anger of disappointed fans.

The longer Sean Murray and Hello Games stay quiet, the faster the Internet backlash will die down and move onto the next controversy. They have conned the games industry and have gotten away with it.

What are your thoughts on No Man’s Sky? Am I being too harsh? Comment down below or join the conversation on Reddit here.