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No Man's Sky drops below 1000 concurrent players on steam

VlaudTheImpaler

VlaudTheImpaler

tl;dr
J.G. said:
If he shaved that beard he'd look like Burke from Aliens I swear
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I have some forensic software that shows how someone would look completely clean shaven.

This is what I got after running his face.

Before:
Cfy6r2FUIAA0X5v.jpg

After:
Quark-ferengi-9330464-579-729.jpg
 
T

The Lamp

Member
NinjaMouse said:
What's crazy is the people who were crucified on this very forum for asking "what do you even do in this game?". I guess not much of anything.
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Every trailer and demo for this game looked boring. They kept selling the novelty as immersing yourself in this nearly empty, boring, procedurally-generated world just wandering around pointless environments, and people actually defended that design philosophy as if it sounded even remotely fun. I never even understood the objective other than to explore these planets? At least Spore let you grow and design creatures.

Why is billions of planets to explore even a selling point? The only way to make billions of levels of anything is if there is no regard to the quality of its design.

Well regardless, with the deception in this game's marketing, it deserves what's coming to it.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
Exterminieren said:
I understand everyone's feelings, but I think this is a bit of a shame. A perfectly pleasant, relaxing game throttled into irrelevance by atrocious messaging and mismanaged expectations.

I might mourn the NMS we never got, but I still enjoy the one we did.
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I don't know, I have a feeling that if the game was marketed accurately that interest would have been fractional of what it was and the $60 price tag would never have flown.

I personally feel that, completely absent of the hype and marketing and just taken for what it actually is, the game fails pretty hard at what it *does* do because the resource management and exploration are so at odds with each other.
 
WaterAstro

WaterAstro

Member
BernardoOne said:
Not really. Data supports that most of a game's sales on Steam will be made at launch.

The game stopped selling because of the terrible word of mouth. It is as simple as this.
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Data supports that there is no other non-multiplayer indie game that has launched with as high as No Man's Sky did on Steam. It is as simple as that.

hamchan said:
You want me to find you another non-multiplayer indie game priced at $60? That's ludicrous because we both know that doesn't exist. I'm not buying the "it's supposed to be this way argument" too, since the $60 price and premise of NMS would have suggested that it's the type of game that should have retained users if it were good. You using Pokémon GO as an example doesn't fit since that's a jump-in, jump-out F2P game, the opposite business model to NMS.

That doesn't answer the Deus Ex question. Why would Deus Ex have still dropped to 5k if it had launched bigger? The "it has more players at launch" argument doesn't hold weight at all considering we can use plenty of other games with big launches like Fallout 4 or fairly big launches like Dark Souks 3, The Witcher 3 and see that the numbers don't drop as badly as NMS.
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Exactly that it doesn't exist. So judging its performance from "trends" is ludicrous. There is no other game that has these factors of indie, singleplayer, $60, and high peak launch on it.

Pokemon GO being F2P should mean it should have lasted longer. Dark Souls 3 is multiplayer. Witcher 3 has a team of hundreds updating it with patchs and DLC. Of course those two games are going to have legs.

Jebusman said:
I'm not really sure what this is supposed to say other than "lol u mad"?

Like are you going to address the fact that you are just determined to label anything that doesn't praise NMS as "another NMS hate thread"?

It's not like we're arguing feelings and personal opinions in this thread. It's numbers. Hard numbers.

And the numbers show that this game has fallen harder than any typical $60 single player game ever has. The whole "It peaked so much higher than everyone else" only makes the fall that much more apparent. If you don't want to see that then yeah, your bias to blindly defend NMS is showing.
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Numbers with no context is meaningless. Comparing games like Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 to No Man's Sky is absolutely bonkers. Teams of hundreds vs a team of 12, yeah that's a fair comparison. No Man's Sky isn't a typical $60 game made by an AAA company with a team of hundreds, and if you don't see that, that is real bias.
 
T

Tranqueris

Banned
NinjaMouse said:
What's crazy is the people who were crucified on this very forum for asking "what do you even do in this game?". I guess not much of anything.
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I just had some NMS thread flashbacks. I think the thing that really annoyed me about that whole thing was the really condescending posts. The ones that were something along the lines of "lololo go back to call of duty, this game just isn't for you."
 
M

Mohasus

Member
These guys really hit the jackpot. Sold a ton and no one is playing it now, which means they don't need to waste resources with post-launch support. Incredible.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
Mohasus said:
These guys really hit the jackpot. Sold a ton and no one is playing it now, which means they don't need to waste resources with post-launch support. Incredible.
Click to expand...

Not really. The complete loss of consumer trust will hurt them significantly in the long term.
 
VlaudTheImpaler

VlaudTheImpaler

tl;dr
Neuromancer said:
The hate boner some people have for this game never ceases to surprise me.
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Surprisingly to me the people who seem to dislike the game the most are the ones who have been disappointed after actually playing it.

I'm just disappointed in Sean and co for how they handled the situation in it's entirety. I haven't played the game so I can't say that I don't like it. But I'm certainly not going to feel bad for it failing if it means that the devs don't profit as much for being disingenuous in the way they marketed the game and then the way they handled it afterwards.
 
dr_rus

dr_rus

Member
Exterminieren said:
I understand everyone's feelings, but I think this is a bit of a shame. A perfectly pleasant, relaxing game throttled into irrelevance by atrocious messaging and mismanaged expectations.

I might mourn the NMS we never got, but I still enjoy the one we did.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know. I don't play the game because it feels unfinished so I'm just waiting for the patches and DLC. Have no issues with messaging or expectations.
 
D

Diancecht

Member
Mohasus said:
These guys really hit the jackpot. Sold a ton and no one is playing it now, which means they don't need to waste resources with post-launch support. Incredible.
Click to expand...

I would put the Sean doing the "mind blown!" gif under this but I am too lazy for that.
 
WaterAstro

WaterAstro

Member
Mohasus said:
These guys really hit the jackpot. Sold a ton and no one is playing it now, which means they don't need to waste resources with post-launch support. Incredible.
Click to expand...

Again, they've released patches for, what I'm assuming, to fix PC crashes and issues. I don't have the PC version, so I can't say. They did a great job patching the crashes out of the PS4 version.

And it's only been a month, they've only been fixing bugs. How can you expect them to have their post-launch content updates this soon? They already said they have more coming, base building and such.
 
J

Jebusman

Banned
WaterAstro said:
Data supports that there is no other non-multiplayer indie game that has launched with as high as No Man's Sky did on Steam. It is as simple as that.



Exactly that it doesn't exist. So judging its performance from "trends" is ludicrous. There is no other game that has these factors of indie, singleplayer, $60, and high peak launch on it.

Pokemon GO being F2P should mean it should have lasted longer. Dark Souls 3 is multiplayer. Witcher 3 has a team of hundreds updating it with patchs and DLC. Of course those two games are going to have legs.



Numbers with no context is meaningless. Comparing games like Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 to No Man's Sky is absolutely bonkers. Teams of hundreds vs a team of 12, yeah that's a fair comparison. No Man's Sky isn't a typical $60 game made by an AAA company with a team of hundreds, and if you don't see that, that is real bias.
Click to expand...

Context? You wanna talk about context?

Did you ever stop and think to yourself HOW this indie game managed to sell such a high number? Or why despite the incredibly high sales, that the player base dropped like a fucking rock? You are incredibly stuck on the immediate result that you're not stopping to think about how he got there, and what it likely cost him and his company in the long run.

The "visionary" for the game (possibly unknowingly) lied about what his game consisted of, on a national stage. The hype train ran fucking wild and he spent an incredible amount of time stoking those flames by just giving contradictory and ambiguous statements throughout it's development, from "it's not multiplayer" to "there are multiplayer components" to "'Can you see other people?' 'Yes'", to "don't expect a multiplayer experience" to "wow two people met already (when they actually didn't).

NMS is a success at the cost of a future. The size of the company is irrelevant. The playerbase bottomed out faster and larger than any other game of it's magnitude, from just about anybody. You trying to compare it to Pokemon Go is laughable.
 
WaterAstro

WaterAstro

Member
Jebusman said:
Context? You wanna talk about context?

Did you ever stop and think to yourself HOW this indie game managed to sell such a high number? Or why despite the incredibly high sales, that the player base dropped like a fucking rock? You are incredibly stuck on the immediate result that you're not stopping to think about how he got there, and what it likely cost him and his company in the long run.

The "visionary" for the game (possibly unknowingly) lied about what his game consisted of, on a national stage. The hype train ran fucking wild and he spent an incredible amount of time stoking those flames by just giving contradictory and ambiguous statements throughout it's development, from "it's not multiplayer" to "there are multiplayer components" to "'Can you see other people?' 'Yes'", to "don't expect a multiplayer experience" to "wow two people met already (when they actually didn't).

NMS is a success at the cost of a future.
Click to expand...

Long run? lol it's only been a month a bit, buddy. Presumptuous to think that No Man's Sky won't get content updates or a price drop to boost their numbers again.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
VlaudTheImpaler said:
Surprisingly to me the people who seem to dislike the game the most are the ones who have been disappointed after actually playing it.

I'm just disappointed in Sean and co for how they handled the situation in it's entirety. I haven't played the game so I can't say that I don't like it. But I'm certainly not going to feel bad for it failing if it means that the devs don't profit as much for being disingenuous in the way they marketed the game and then the way they handled it afterwards.
Click to expand...

I went into the game with the best of faith and genuinely enjoyed the first few hours. But when I saw it for what it was (not what it wasn't) I couldn't be bothered to keep playing. That was the most disappointing thing to me. Not that so much was missing but that what was there was so pointless and shallow and fundamentally boring.

I resisted negative feelings for Hello Games for a long time after that, always shaking my head at the vitriol and hyperbolic rage and accusations of deceit and lies. I still believe that Hello Games never set out to be so misleading but probably backed themselves into a corner with their own delusional aspirations.

What has turned me into a true cynic regarding this game has been the absolute silence in addressing people's feeling, concerns and accusations. I understand that they might feel this is the best PR move, and maybe it is, but it has turned a bad situation into a dumpster fire because there is zero damage control.

It's certainly not what I want people to remember the next time any other indie studio tries to market an ambitious concept. That, for me, is the most damning consequence of this whole situation.
 
B

brau

Member
Jebusman said:
Context? You wanna talk about context?

Did you ever stop and think to yourself HOW this indie game managed to sell such a high number? Or why despite the incredibly high sales, that the player base dropped like a fucking rock? You are incredibly stuck on the immediate result that you're not stopping to think about how he got there, and what it likely cost him and his company in the long run.

The "visionary" for the game (possibly unknowingly) lied about what his game consisted of, on a national stage. The hype train ran fucking wild and he spent an incredible amount of time stoking those flames by just giving contradictory and ambiguous statements throughout it's development, from "it's not multiplayer" to "there are multiplayer components" to "'Can you see other people?' 'Yes'", to "don't expect a multiplayer experience" to "wow two people met already (when they actually didn't).

NMS is a success at the cost of a future. The size of the company is irrelevant. The playerbase bottomed out faster and larger than any other game of it's magnitude, from just about anybody. You trying to compare it to Pokemon Go is laughable.
Click to expand...

Since you posted this i decided to go through with this post i've had sitting for a while. It makes sense.

besada said:
I don't care if you or anyone else hated it. I've enjoyed it and more than got my money's worth with over sixty hours of play. It's sad it's done so poorly and that Murray made such a mess of it, because there's some amazing stuff there that's overlooked in all the agita about what it could/should have been.
Click to expand...

Getting your moneys worth doesn't make up for shady PR and all the lies that Sean did. Plenty of interviews on that... being vague about your content doesn't make up for it either. People seem to think that its all on the player, and the hype train. but its not, there was a direct impact from the developers on the reception of this game. Not to mention its price. For $60 bucks you bet your ass that one should be weary about what you are purchasing. But there is also a responsibility from the people behind the game on the information they share. This game is setting an example, and pretty sure that its considered a success after how much it sold. Do i want other games trying to do this? No.

I think even an exec from Sony said that its PR was not handled properly, and HG being an indy should be taken into consideration. Essentially throwing them under the bus.

It all comes down to practices in the industry that impact it directly. I believe NMS will be one of them, and its sad to think that a pubsliher and developer can get away with $60 price tag for what they delivered. Really tarnishes other games that are better, in the same genre and developed by small studios all the same.

TL;DR: Glad you enjoyed the game. But the lack of communication from the developers, after all the vague things they mentioned plus the price mark really make this a game that might be setting a new standard as far as content / value.
 
V

vctor182

Member
Gee.... how awkward must he feel now

You.
Yes, you. The one screaming, "There's no multiplayer!" and "Sean Murray lied to us!" and other slurs I dare not mention.
Tread lightly.
You are one. We are hundreds, thousands. Millions. You aren't just IN the minority; you ARE the minority.
I don't feel awkward or anxious playing No Man's Sky around others, and your words don't affect me. Many others, however, are coming out of their shells for the first time in their lives. This is the first time many are enjoying the beautiful world that has been procedurally generated for us - and it IS beautiful. Incredibly so. DON'T ruin this for them. We No Man's Sky fans may have our differences, but we will not hesitate to come to the aid of our fellow explorers, especially against someone who so virulently slurs that which has brought us all together.
Don't take this the wrong way. I don't hate you. I don't fear you.
I pity you.
I'm sorry that you feel this way towards us. I'm sorry that No Man's Sky is such a bane to your existence. And I'm sorry that you are missing out on such a wonderful experience. Mostly, though, I'm sorry that you feel the need to go around and publicly chastise and berate others. I'm sorry that, to ensure your own validity, you need to make others feel invalid. I'm sorry that your self-worth is so infinitesimally miniscule that you have to make others feel less-than-human, at least in your own denatured mind, just to feel whole. I am truly sorry that day-in and day-out you have to put up with your worthless, meaningless, Shakespearean tragedy of a life.
I ask you politely to cease your unnecessary cries for attention, and instead invite you to join our ranks. Uninstall Call of Duty, start up No Man's Sky, and breathe in the splendour and the amazement of your first planet, and then, maybe, just maybe, you'll see what you've been so hopelessly searching for this whole time.
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F

Fabtacular

Member
HotHamBoy said:
Not really. The complete loss of consumer trust will hurt them significantly in the long term.
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The game likely sold 3m copies at $60 each.

That's $180m in revenue...
-$54m in platform fees
-$10m in development costs
-$40m in taxes
...leaving $72m in net profit.**

**Very, very rough approximation.

If Sean Murray owns even 20% of Hello Games, he just put $15m in his bank account.

There will be no justice here. There will be no accountability.

There will just be a charmingly shy millionaire con man who never has to work another day in his life.
 
bitbydeath

bitbydeath

Gold Member
People love to hate but I bet most would buy a sequel as it'd likely improve on everything now that the groundwork is done.
 
S

Schlorgan

Member
WaterAstro said:
I addressed your lie about the game not having future updates.
Click to expand...

He's referring to updates that add anything meaningful to the game (base building, etc), and it's not a lie, it's speculation and only time will tell if it's true or not.

For the record, I uninstalled the game and I don't know if anything would ever get me to go back in.
 
T

thomasmahler

Member
HotHamBoy said:
Not really. The complete loss of consumer trust will hurt them significantly in the long term.
Click to expand...

At this point, I think it's crazy to assume that there's a long-term strategy there. Pretty sure a lot of devs will leave Hello Games since I doubt they'll be able to release another game and not get crucified immediately.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
There is no way they can create content to get all those people back on board

I mean, they dont need to get numbers sky high, but who will pay for content, and what content can be added to justify? As a SP game, it seems really hard

Im really curious to see if those numbers will rise back for dlc. If a major content drop happens (we dont really know the dlc plan) then it needs to be big, but theyd probably charge big too.

And it has to somehow expand the game in a fulfilling way. Considering the base mechanics, isnt this a monumental task?
 
D

Diffense

Member
I was mildly intrigued before release but it seems as if the game just isn't deep enough and lacks the gameplay mechanics to sustain interest. Ultimately, the answer to the question "what do you do" on 18 quintillion planets seems to be "shoot rocks".
 
WaterAstro

WaterAstro

Member
Schlorgan said:
He's referring to updates that add anything meaningful to the game (base building, etc), and it's not a lie, it's speculation and only time will tell if it's true or not.
Click to expand...

No, he said that the game has no future because Hello Games abandoned it. They had a patch September 2nd for PC, so it's clearly not the case that it was a cash grab and run.
 
P

patapuf

Member
I have never seen a game with that kind of opening on steam completely fail to take advantage of any kind of momentum it had.

It released with huge interest and.. nothing.

Even flavor of the month indie games with a 10th the sales seem to be able to capitalize better on the initial boost.



They'll have to start from almost zero again if they want to do anything long-term with their game. Seems wasteful. That's not how you cultivate legs for your open ended exploration game, it's not like customers of those are particularly harsh on their games either.
 
S

samn

Member
I'm still amazed anyone thought this would be great. I've been walking around for weeks just feeling so vindicated.
 
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