As a software engineer I'm quiet familiar with the realities of working on a long project. If you can't ensure something in the final product you don't announce it and in the case you announced a feature that isn't going to be in the final product for whatever reason you inform your potential clients of it. Lying, both deliberately and not, are a no-go when you sell your product imo. Being an indie dev doesn't free you of the shackles you lay upon yourself.
What's the point of interviews if we can't take anything from it? And for commercial publicity does doing an interview/demo on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this very year count in your eyes?
As a software engineer, you should be able to appreciate how close to the wire non-essential features can be cut even though they're 95% ready, and have been for the past year.
If you shouldn't be talking about features that you're not sure will be in your video game, then you might as well not talk about your game.
Here's what I think on the matter: Consumers have an avenue to be informed about the game before they buy it. Being protected from "hype" before the game releases isn't a right. It's not up to the developer to downplay their own game. (and it's not as if this was anywhere close to a colonial marines job) Being able to buy the game on day one, sight unseen, isn't a right. If you want to walk into purchasing this game completely informed, there are ways for the vast majority of people (especially here on Neogaf) to do that. If you fail to do that, then that's on you.
There was no imaginary stuff they said. Look at the video I posted with multiple interviews saying what kind of game to expect. If that changed and it must have, they should have said, "Hey the multiplayer aspect that we wanted is gone." Months before it was out. Not in the same week. Also then right after that acting like it is still in the game.
When I go to the game's steam page, it says "single player" right there. When I look up "Is No Man's Sky multiplayer?", I get an answer. When I look at the commercials for the game, I don't see it being advertised as a multiplayer game.
From my recollection, Sean was always very coy about whether or not the game had a multiplayer component.
Anyhow, that's the last I'll say on that. I'm very glad the game is doing well financially.
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