Nine weeks after No Man’s Sky’s 1.09 patch, Hello Games has announced that it will be releasing an update to the game “this week”, with “detailed patch notes” to follow “soon”.
The post on the game’s website states,
Hello,
This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.
Detailed patch notes will follow, and release will be soon.
Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all herehttp://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release.
In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something.
The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about.
Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.
This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.
Thank you,
Hello Games
While the cryptic announcement is short on details, Hello Games claims that this soon to be released update will be only the “first small step in a longer journey”.
We’ve know about plans to introduce features like base building into the game for a while, but there hasn’t been any real timeline for when things like this would be added.
The previous update, released at the send of September, tried to address a number of bugs that were hindering performance for players on PS4.
Comments
59 responses to “No Man’s Sky Developers Break Long Silence, Promise Update This Week”
I held on for months, but I finally traded in NMS a couple of weeks ago. To have zero communication with customers, when they know people have felt unsatisfied with their product, is toxic, thoughtless and contemptuous. If they’d been in touch throughout this debacle, I might have still been on board. Now, whatever what they’ve done to try and improve it, I just don’t care.
It may have something to do with the fact that so much consumer feedback has been toxic, thoughtless and contemptuous. I don’t work in game design, but one thing I’ve learnt over the years is that the gamer is probably one of the most entitled consumers out there, and also one of the most easily spurned to extremes. NMS has problems but there’s no way it or it’s developers deserve the torrents of pure hatred that have been unleashed upon it.
True but I don’t think that feedback of any form should stop the developer from communicating…they can keep people updated with their vision and people can do with that as they please. Im not sure they have made the right move with base building tho…
One way to guarantee that toxic comments continue to be made is by not communicating with their player base. I’ve seen grumblings before from gamers that abruptly end or at least become limited to a few rather than the majority just by the dev coming out and saying what’s going on.
It happened with Binding of Isaac Afterbirth. Was a huge outrage starting form the community about promised content not being in the game. Turned out it was a legitimate mistake from the dev and he patched it in. He communicated with the gamers prior to that though when he realised the issue was real and the comments went from “burn him alive” to “oh, lets just wait a couple days then”.
Once again the deflection and conflation.
HG did not cut communication because people were being toxic, people became toxic because HG cut communication and refused to address a number of rapidly increasing concerns from their consumers.
One thing I’ve learnt from my years of being human is that extremism works both ways.
The toxic gamer and rabid defenders of NMS are purely vocal minorities who muddy the waters with inflated emotional responses.
Once you strip away the nonsense, the facts remain…
Hello Games misled consumers.
It caused a stir through the industry, put them under investigation, saw mass refunding through consumer rights bodies and saw companies like Valve making developers more liable for deceptive marketing practices.
So while people continue to fling mud and point fingers.
The NMS saga has been beneficial for the industry and consumers as a whole.
And as for Hello Games, their future is one of their own making or fault, not that of extremists.
Why would they add base building to a game that is designed to keep you moving from system to system constantly? What a pointless feature.
Because the game they wanted to make and the game that people demanded so strongly were 2 different things.
I think “exploring the galaxy” was a pretty key part of their original design for the game. I don’t remember seeing at any point in development the idea that you’d keep coming back to a place you’d already been to.
But idiots kept demanding it because Minecraft or some shit, so now they’re adding it. Now they’re bending to the will of the community to add a totally irrelevant feature when there are better things to do.
Anecdotally, I feel like “base building” was pretty low on the list of things the community wanted added to the game. Most people just wanted things originally promised to be added, it seems odd that HG would choose to add base building instead of something more fundamental like a better crafting system or actual distribution of resources.
I heard it brought up all the time, and the argument that you quite rightly bring up (that it shouldn’t even be in the game at all, given what it’s about) was posited… and now apparently ignored. I totally agree with you but the people asking for base building were pretty vocal.
There is also feasibility to factor in. Maybe adding base building turned out to be fairly easy, overhauling the other systems, not so much.
I vaguely recall hearing somewhere that the base building was like a mothership/station thing that could travel or teleport or something, i think? I’d chuck the game in again to check that out for a few days. More if it had some more, idk, story? Agency? More fleshed out missions or goals? Perhaps a villain or enemy force? Maybe getting high rank with one race causes hostility in another? An existential threat you unwittingly unleash then have to learn how to stop it? See, any of these would be an improvement for me, but may leave someone else cold. With how wide, yet shallow the game ended up, its left us all with different ideas or opinions on how it should be fixed.
People also asked for multiplayer (mostly because Murray already said it was in multiple times) but they ignored that.
No one is holding a gun the their heads, just because some idiots suggested a seemingly pointless feature, it’s the devs who chose to develop it.
Retrofitting multiplayer into the game is a lot more difficult than something like base building.
The facts seem to say otherwise.
But hey, that’s never the point of the NMS saga.
Nevermind they’re two separate game modes
There’s so much hate surrounding this game, so I’m going to put this out there – this is awesome. I super enjoyed my time wandering through space in No Man’a Sky, spending probably 40-50 hours in that universe. Adding this extra stuff sounds like it’s going to be pretty cool, and that they have long term plans to continue to update the game, which is even better. Given the reaction, most “fans” of the game don’t deserve to be given more, to be totally honest, but they’re doing it anyway. Hello Games are a bunch of really great people in an impossible situation, and I commend them for their continued efforts.
They were never in an impossible situation. All they had to do was be honest, something they still haven’t done.
yeah because gamers never have a problem with honest? bahaha I know your a Zombie but you cant be talking about our reality. Because in this one gamers cant tell the difference between optimization and downgrading.
Gamers crucify devs on every single word they ever say and even words they dont even say. If you cant see how game developers (on any game these days) as in an impossible situation you really need to get out more.
Umm.. Ok..
Don’t think anyone’s talking about optimisation stuff here, we’re talking about the game that still has a steam description full of lies, not to mention out of date videos and pictures and let’s not even get started on all the development streams, trailers, interviews, etc.
I’d be more inclined to think anyone who is ok with those type of business practices is a bit of a sucker but maybe that’s just me.
blah blah blah we all know the story by now, we really dont need that record played over again. I was merely referring to games in general. If there is a way for gamers on mass to take something in positive/constructive light, they will ALWAYS find the negative version of it. it doesnt matter if the devs were truthful or lying, they get into trouble. thats the impossible situation. I wasnt even referring to NMS but zombies comment
That’s just not true though, if it were, every developer would be hated which is not the case. Nintendo, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, Bethesda, That Game Company, Team Ico (I could list devs all day) – all loved by the majority of the community.
There will always be fans and haters of anything but in general if you treat your customers with respect, most will do the same. Hello Games didn’t seem to get that memo.
sorry the launch of Witcher 3 proves you wrong. one of the greatest games developers, with arguably the greatest game of the decade and still there was a MASSIVE amount of wide spread of hate generated before launch and after. all because morons would rather they release a broken unplayable game with the grapghics they originally showed, than an optimised game, that works but looks slightly less good.
Diablo 3 launch disproves your point about Blizzard and hideous official forum culture there. Or every time people dont like the way loot boxes are handled, or HAH the poor dears who had to wait for Sombra, complaining all the time. Bethesda only recently got heaps of bad press because of their move not to release review copies, or every time they release a game, gamers down vote there games for being buggy pretending to forgot that they always service their games after launch.
Whether some of these are justified or not, the fact is gamers are their own enemies and overreact massively to dev press comments. ALL game devs even the respected ones face an overwhelming toxic side of the gaming community, all from gamers forgetting little things like maturity and respect.
Massive amount of wide spread hate for the Witcher 3?
Nah.
Maybe 1 thread on Neogaf about graphic downgrades.
I can’t speak to the Witcher 3 because I’ve never got into the series but the rest makes me wonder if you only see one side of every issue.
Yes Diablo 3 was recieved poorly, mostly because it was the biggest flop of a launch Blizzard has ever had with features cut left and right, lead developers flat-out insulting customers/past Blizzard devs, completely broken servers and the RMAH just to make sure anyone who could play was getting screwed.
Shockingly though, they communicated, they (eventually) fixed the problems and Diablo 3 is now another popular Blizzard game.
The same with Sombra, the Overwatch team did a shitty job with their ARG (don’t give me shit about people waiting, that had nothing to do with it – it was that we had an ARG that told us to wait constantly and the reward for solving the puzzles and then waiting was just more waiting).
Again though, Blizzard came forward, admitted it wasn’t very well organised (it was their first time) and will try it a bit different if they do one again – well handled.
Bethesda… I think 99% of people know at this point that they polish their games ‘eventually’ but for most people, that should never be an excuse to continue releasing buggy games. Again no one is holding a gun to their heads – especially in this case as Bethesday self-publish their games – so constantly releasing games in such a buggy state is just lazy.
As for their review policy, obviously it’s got bad press from consumers – it’s a very anti-consumer policy. Not a huge amount of love lost from fans just yet as it’s new and hasn’t impacted much of anything but will probably cause some debate when their next Elder Scrolls/Fallout is releasing.
The point is just as I said before, obviously customers aren’t happy when devs do something anti-consumer or something they view as detrimental to the game/community but if the devs work with the community, address the issue and fix problems that need fixing, people will generally forgive them.
Hello Games haven’t done any of these things yet.
Massive amount of hate? Are you thick?
If its so hated by the community, Why is the community nominating it for GOTY on the steam awards?
Witcher 3 has a 9.3 on metacritic from users, Gee, So much hate huh?
Wheras No mans sky has a 2.5 user score on meta crtitic. I wonder why huh?
Lol, you love to make up bullshit.
Face facts, No mans sky devs blatently lied. We dont like that and they have suffered for it and it will never be the same. No amount of you sooking will change that
Next in, Blakeavon thinks its not the devs of Arkham Knights fault for having a shit port on PC, Its the pc players fault for hyping a functioning game too much. The poor devs dont deserve the hate they were getting for making a broken game
What your saying is no different to these toxic gamers you seem to hate so much.
I have seen more people trying to discuss NMS in a logical and reasonable way.
These people are constantly bombarded by a few individuals who muddy the waters with either blind anger or blind empathy.
Im just glad things have changed for the better.
Perhaps we can begin fixing some other problems facing the game industry.
How about crucifying them for a lack of patch notes then. Patch notes are a fundamental part of updates.
I wasnt talking about NMS but games in general. More correctly talking about how gamers find increasing terrible ways of being crap to game developers. Even those times they dont deserve it.
You’re absolutely right. HG should have been honest to begin with. However, when you consider they recieved death threats for delaying the game, I can understand why they were reticent to fess up. It’s not an excuse for their actions. The responsibility for this mess solely rests with HG.
I guess this is a lesson to all developers that honesty, regardless of the backlash, is the best policy. But this death-threat bullshit needs to stop. One thing that needs to happen is people need to be held responsible for online behaviour.
I agree, death threats are fucking stupid over a video game (or just about anything really). I do wonder how much hand HG had in driving that frenzy in the first place though, they promised dreams and set unreasonable expectations right from the beginning. Not saying it’s their fault necessarily, but they have have some culpability.
With the carrying on that the people in this thread have been doing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some of them. I have never seen people getting so wound up about a game.
Jesus christ Sean Murray, is that you?
Agreed, I’ve loved what I’ve played (been constantly going back to it since getting out at launch) and am really excited to hear the news of a new update.
I do share the frustrations of many in regards to lack of communication, but won’t let that negatively impact my view on Hello Games.
Applying the “movie benchmark”, I got my money’s worth. I put in around 30 hours, so thats a little over $2/hour. I’ve got much better value from some games, but ths wasn’t too bad value. Of couse, “mileage will vary” from person to person.
I never bought into the hype either. I didn’t believe that they could deliver all they promised with such a small team. The hype reminded me of the Peter Molyneux games of old. But even “Black and White”, which was an even bigger dissapointment in my opinion, didn’t even get a fraction of the vitriol NMS got.
I’m guessing this update is so light on information because they’ve learnt (or they’ve been told) not to ‘promise’ anything until they know they can deliver.
A smart move.
Well the few hundred lunatics still playing this underwhelming garbage will be ecstatic! For anyone with any sense this comes a few months too late
yeah how dare those lunatics enjoy playing a game they paid their money for, just because everyone else is too caught up STILL on the hate train and STILL posting hate posts at every turn, months later.
Settle down, sugar puss !
thanks for helping me prove my point.
I paid money for it too. I platinumed it as well in about 30 hours. That doesnt stop it from being underwhelming garbage easily moved on from. If there are still people so caught up in trying to justify the hype they had for it then really I pity them.
On a side note did anyone ever actually find anyone else in the universe?
Anyone with sense would have let it go and moved on by now if they thought it was underwhelming garbage.
So today (US Black Friday, when the game is likely on sale just about globally) we got a vague announcement of an upcoming update that will set-up another update ‘someday’ for Base Building.
Ok, nice to hear some communication finally but as for the new stuff, I’ll believe it when I see it.
It does ring a little of “buy our game now and we promise we’ll add stuff soon, honest”, doesn’t it.
Well, nice to get an update. It’ll be interesting to see where HG head with this.
I still jump into this game occasionally, because it makes for a great chill-out session. Hour here, hour there, that’s all. Though I can occasionally get obsessive about hunting down all creatures on a planet. I need to get me a safari hat for those times.
One thing i would like to see more than base building is building your own massive star ship that can hold a massive inventory and a a few smaller ships to go exploring planets.
Base building on random planets is a bit useless unless you have some way of always going back to it where ever you are in the galaxy.
TBH, I’d love to be able to easily go back to systems you left behind.
Apparently with the update you can own freighters now and they act like a big personal base in space; can ‘summon’ to any star system
Build bases for what purpose? To house all your rocks and plants?
I just came here for the comments.
I just came here to make comments.
Hey thats great an all Hello games, But how about you work of adding features you promised, Features you still list on the steam store page instead of new ones.
Yeah, not keen on base-building in a game where you bound from planet to planet shooting lasers at rocks. Was hoping for more actual substance, improvement of the ship’s handling, and, I dunno – actual, proper space battles?
Primarily I would be keen on a patch note reading “improved ability to actually communicate with our consumers”. The game didn’t have me frothing at the mouth, and whilst the money felt like a waste I was more disappointed than anything else in their handling of PR. I’ll play pretty much anything, and I will support an indie developer even through the hard times, but this company deserves none of my respect.
They promoted their game through every possible channel, hyping up features that weren’t actually present in the game in any way. Having a vision is awesome, but just be a tad more transparent about it, and don’t charge AAA pricing for an incomplete vision. NMS would have been a great kickstarter / early access game, giving them the funding to build upon it until it was actually complete.
What’s worse is the silence. You don’t need a PR guy whispering in your ear to tell you that hiding underneath a rock is the worst thing you could do in this situation. There are just as many reasonable consumers as there are toxic, and you owe it to these people to be honest and admit where you fell short. Bethesda have been releasing buggy games for years (often fixed with 3rd-party mods ultimately), but they are adored by many of their consumers regardless. I get that ‘feedback, positive or negative’ will help them to improve certain aspects of the game. But the current state of what’s left of their consumer base is still quite hostile; more effective communication and a decent relationship with their customers would present a much healthier environment for their team, and would foster more positive changes in their game.
They lost my interest early on. I will not support a developer that cannot open an honest dialogue. Announcements like these are simply them talking to themselves. It’s a two-way street, especially where investment and support is concerned.
Regarding lack of communication from HG: they tried talking before release and now realise their talk is worth shit right now. Actions are what HG needs and that is what they are trying to build up with actions.. trust.
It wasn’t that they talked too much before, it was that they made wild promises they didn’t carry through with. Communication is good, but it has to be honest communication.
Yes, the things they said got them in this situation so anything they say now without proof/progress to back it up will still garner a negative reaction and provide food for trolls.
Garbage game that is absolutely pointless to play.