Hello Games Received Death Threats, Bomb Threats after Release of No Man’s Sky

Megalith

Megalith

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Sean Murray and Hello Games have crawled out of the woodwork to touch upon the drama following No Man’s Sky release, which was heavily criticized for not living up to the developer’s promises. While the team is candid about some of the controversy and describes the “frightening” harassment they received, those who felt betrayed and cheated won’t find any apologies here.

“I remember getting a death threat about the fact that there were butterflies in our original trailer, and you could see them as you walked past them, but there weren’t any butterflies in the launch game. I remember thinking to myself: ‘Maybe when you’re sending a death threat about butterflies in a game, you might be the bad guy.’”
 
Death threats over a video game? Good god people need to get some perspective. Here's a really radical idea - just don't buy it!

Or ask for a refund. I did - and got it. Problem solved.
 
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DocNo said:
Death threats over a video game? Good god people need to get some perspective. Here's a really radical ideal - just don't buy it!

Or ask for a refund. I did - and got it. Problem solved.
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Internet's add +100 courage and +80 aggression.

I'd wager the people that made those threats would be silent if it had to be done in person. Remove their anonymity and they clam up.

It's like the 12 year old who claims to be banging my mom in game chat, put him in a room of adult gamers and he'd be a ga'damn wallflower trying to blend in.
 
Sad thing about it is Hello Games is a small studio of 16 people. Those kinda threats would be a lot more unnerving when you know the entire staff's full names are listed on their website.

When you are in a larger more corporate studio, there's generally a bigger umbrella over your head protecting employees from such threats getting thrown about.

I'm sure some people are just like, "dude I'm just a programmer trying to do my job, chill".
 
I swear to god, Sony fanboys are just horrible this gen. Probably a lot of them are 360 owners that changed teams when they purchased a PS4.
 
Disco_Stu_04 said:
Such a sad bunch of entitled people.

Honestly, kudos to the devs for pushing through and chasing their passions.
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While I agree shit like that should not happen, they should have released the game they advertised/intended then it would not have happened in the first place.

Kind of had it with these bring out now, fix later games.
 
Denpepe said:
While I agree shit like that should not happen, they should have released the game they advertised/intended then it would not have happened in the first place.

Kind of had it with these bring out now, fix later games.
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You are right that they over promised, but that is no reason to threaten a man's life. It is just why we should stop pre-ordering. Make the games earn our cash.
 
Denpepe said:
While I agree shit like that should not happen, they should have released the game they advertised/intended then it would not have happened in the first place.

Kind of had it with these bring out now, fix later games.
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Dude that kinda sounds like victim blaming. It's just a videogame.

Everyone knows the risk of pre-ordering, so that was the customer's mistake.

The devs made the mistake of underestimating/over promising.

The key thing about mistakes is how do they recover/bounce back and grow? The Devs pushed through, the losers made death threats.
 
You mean it looked great on the trailer, but the movie was shit?... That has never happened in the history of ever... How could this happen with a game... Incredible.
 
sean murrays biggest mistake was right after the deal with sony was not getting someone to handle the PR dutys . sony should have got most of the blame as well small studio with a lead who was clearly out of his depth doing all the media stuff they shoulda got some of their people to protect hello games and prolly coach Murray somewhat.
 
Denpepe said:
While I agree shit like that should not happen, they should have released the game they advertised/intended then it would not have happened in the first place.

Kind of had it with these bring out now, fix later games.
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That doesn't excuse the 1 out of 100,000 fans or whatever small minority it really is(assuming everyone that did so actually even bought the game, because on the internet people see a bandwagon and jump on it) making death threats.

Telling them their game is shit, saying they should never work in the industry again, frankly that's all fine. The moment it crosses the line into threats of violence? That's unacceptable. "In the real world" (and the verbiage depends on the state, country, etc. that you're in), you cannot simply walk up to someone on the street and threaten to murder them as that would be grounds for assault, making terroristic threats, etc.
 
Denpepe said:
While I agree shit like that should not happen, they should have released the game they advertised/intended then it would not have happened in the first place.

Kind of had it with these bring out now, fix later games.
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This gets far too close to victim-blaming for comfort. There's hordes of people who managed to complain without resorting to threats, or even hostility. My favourite one:

 
PR.

Pathetic Release. Patches Released. Publicity Required. Pathos Revisited. Please Revisit.
 
We need to start killing off people who make over the top threats. Same with hackers. The world is overpopulated. These idiots are good candidates to start off.
 
While death threats and bomb threats are slightly over the top to say the least, they really did bring a lot of this on themselves. Constantly bullshitting about what the game can do etc and the final product not living up-to that is bound to piss some people off. Every time that Murray guy got interviewed they should have handed the interviewers wading boots to get through the deluge of bullshit on the floor.

Never actually played the game, or heard about it much before it's release, just seen the aftermath of the launch.


Came across this on twitter...



:confused:

I think a few people are getting slightly excited.
 
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Bought full price-pre-release just because I was really looking forward to an exploration game. Thought it sucked, didn't return because I wanted to give 'em chances to improve and witness. Still don't really like it, but threats folks-c'mon and get a life.
 
when you sell hope, and it turns out you were lying for profit all these while,

of course the blowback is much much worse than selling just a bad product

there is sentiment involved, and no one likes being lied to

entire governments were disposed off because of similar outrage

worse thing is that they were defensive after being found out, rather than handing out refunds and coupons.
 
I thought the game sounded amazing and I was looking forward to playing it. However, I have a huge backlog of games I've never looked at yet. My strategy is to typically wait a year or so, pick up the game during a Steam sale, and then not play it (uh - my strategy could have some flaws.)
By me waiting to buy games in this manner, I usually get a stable game and some DLC with it. Not too mention, there will usually be tutorials or web sites to help me out if I'm stuck in an area or want a quicker crash course into the game. I don't have lots of free time to play games.
I'm still watching No Man's Sky - when it gets down to $10, maybe I'll pick it up. From what I've read, I don't think I would like the current version all that much.
Instead, I'll play some more Subnautica. That game is awesome. I don't recall seeing a lot of hype about it - if anything, it seemed to fly under the radar.
 
I'm on the other side of the spectrum and really like No Man's Sky. I've gotten hundreds of hours out of it, and I'm stoked for the big release in two days - and, NOT for the multiplayer portion. That was never important to me, it's neat, sure, but I don't care about it really.
 
scojer said:
I'm on the other side of the spectrum and really like No Man's Sky. I've gotten hundreds of hours out of it, and I'm stoked for the big release in two days - and, NOT for the multiplayer portion. That was never important to me, it's neat, sure, but I don't care about it really.
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That's just the thing. I'm right with you. Absolutely loved it, and with all the recent patches, I just keep loving it more and more. It did fall a little bit short of what they had said it would be, but not by THAT much. It fell short of what people THOUGHT or HOPED it would be. Most of those "promised" features weren't even promised. They originated in some internet forum, caught on, and became a false catalyst for everyone's rage. Pathetic really.

One nice byproduct though is that this game is shaping up to be a pretty amazing piece of work despite all the internet morons. I'm really glad that they chose to continue on with it. Can't wait for the Next patch to release.

They deserve awards and accolades, not death threats.

Most of the people out there complaining probably haven't even played it, or don't even like the obvious style of game that it is. They just want to jump on the wagon and bitch.
 
J3RK said:
That's just the thing. I'm right with you. Absolutely loved it, and with all the recent patches, I just keep loving it more and more. It did fall a little bit short of what they had said it would be, but not by THAT much. It fell short of what people THOUGHT or HOPED it would be. Most of those "promised" features weren't even promised. They originated in some internet forum, caught on, and became a false catalyst for everyone's rage. Pathetic really.

One nice byproduct though is that this game is shaping up to be a pretty amazing piece of work despite all the internet morons. I'm really glad that they chose to continue on with it. Can't wait for the Next patch to release.

They deserve awards and accolades, not death threats.

Most of the people out there complaining probably haven't even played it, or don't even like the obvious style of game that it is. They just want to jump on the wagon and bitch.
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I enjoy it as well, i like to play elite dangerous but NMS is a nice casual play for me. It runs pretty smooth, is very visually appealing. People like to say its a mile wide and an inch deep, but so is minecraft. It is all about creating your own story as you play. The addition of multiplayer will be a great thing for them. I am glad they keep putting effort into it.


Why is it this generation of people can't understand people have different tastes? I hate asparagus but my wife loves it, should I go after the farmers and markets that sell that smelly shit?
 
Darunion said:
I enjoy it as well, i like to play elite dangerous but NMS is a nice casual play for me. It runs pretty smooth, is very visually appealing. People like to say its a mile wide and an inch deep, but so is minecraft. It is all about creating your own story as you play. The addition of multiplayer will be a great thing for them. I am glad they keep putting effort into it.


Why is it this generation of people can't understand people have different tastes? I hate asparagus but my wife loves it, should I go after the farmers and markets that sell that smelly shit?
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I like E: D too actually. I haven't played it lately, but it was definitely pretty cool in a more sim-heavy way. I also backed SC "just enough" with a 315P to get my foot in the door, but am holding off for another release or two to try it again. NMS is a great way to unwind. It can be a lot of different games depending on how it's played too.
 
J3RK said:
I like E: D too actually. I haven't played it lately, but it was definitely pretty cool in a more sim-heavy way. I also backed SC "just enough" with a 315P to get my foot in the door, but am holding off for another release or two to try it again. NMS is a great way to unwind. It can be a lot of different games depending on how it's played too.
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Agreed, I think I might reinstall it after this new update tomorrow.
 
Darunion said:
Agreed, I think I might reinstall it after this new update tomorrow.
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I actually like to play it before I go to sleep. I have a Shield TV and a 47" TV in my bedroom. After my wife is done with the TV, I'll occasionally fire up NMS and do a bit of exploring at the end of the day.
 
Person, company or entity releases thing to masses. Portion of population irrationally angry at said thing and posts said irrationality to the internet and person/company/entity privately.

How is this news? This is a regular cycle since at least the days of snail mail. Maybe it even goes back as far as cave drawings.
 
Armenius said:
Person, company or entity releases thing to masses. Portion of population irrationally angry at said thing and posts said irrationality to the internet and person/company/entity privately.

How is this news? This is a regular cycle since at least the days of snail mail. Maybe it even goes back as far as cave drawings.
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It's not news. You're absolutely correct there. Still fairly appalling though, and maybe worth a short conversation once in a while. Fucking humans...
 
J3RK said:
It's not news. You're absolutely correct there. Still fairly appalling though, and maybe worth a short conversation once in a while. Fucking humans...
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Conversation does fuckall for issues like this, to be blunt. Calling these things out isn't going to garner any sympathy from me, either.
 
Armenius said:
Conversation does fuckall for issues like this, to be blunt. Calling these things out isn't going to garner any sympathy from me, either.
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Well, what else are you going to talk about today? Nice weather we're having eh? How about that sports team? :p
 
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