What a difference a year or two makes.
It wasn’t that long ago that the pitchforks were out for No Man’s Sky. These days? The community is literally buying ad space to say thank you to the developers. 138 No Man’s Sky fans, from the official subreddit, raised just over $3400 to buy an outdoor billboard just outside the Hello Games’ offices in Guildford, UK.
“Billboards are booked months even up to years in advance, we were lucky enough to be offered a 2 week campaign within a 2 minute drive of the Hello Games office in Guildford, UK. The closest available time slot was a 2 week period from 12 AUG 2019,” the GoFundMe campaign, which only needed a goal of $2531 ($US1750), says. “A portion of the funds will also be used to buy a case of beer and lunch for the team.”
The campaign itself was already a nice outpouring of appreciation for No Man’s Sky and the game’s turnaround, but the campaign’s success has triggered another wave of love for the British developers:
And as you’d expect, Sean Murray is taken aback by all of this.
our community has bought the billboard outside our office to say Thank You
Oh. My. God.https://t.co/oGTjFI4WWG
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) June 13, 2019
In a week where the global spotlight is on video games, and the people who play them — a natural byproduct of mainstream interest from E3 — it warms the heart to see the best of communities when they truly come together.
Sean Murray has spoken before, most recently at GDC, about how his studio redoubled their efforts and changed processes to turn things around. In an interview with Stephen, Murray noted that gamers sometimes tend to forget about “the nice things people do in games”. “This is lovely and really meaningful to make games in a time when people are connected enough that they can do that,” he told Kotaku.
And now, that connection will be a permanent feature, 2 minutes away from the No Man’s Sky offices. For at least a fortnight, anyway, and not including the free booze that’s on its way.
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