No Man’s Sky Being Investigated For False Advertising

Advertising Standards Authority is investigating No Man's Sky for false advertisement
Enough people complained about the game to the ASA to make this happen.
By Tatiana Morris

After the active player count for No Man's Sky dropped below 1,000 players on Steam, it's safe to say that the highly anticipated game had a rather rough release. It appears as though things are getting worse for No Man's Sky, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is investigating the game after receiving "several complaints."

After No Man's Sky released in August for the PlayStation 4 and PC, there were claims from fans of false advertisement perpetuated by the game's creator Sean Murray. False advertisement wasn't the only complaint, there were also bugs that caused quite a few players either refunding the game or simply quit playing.

Even Sony's President believes that No Man's Sky was overpromised by its creator. Throughout all of this, the No Man's Sky developers have been silent - they have yet to comment on claims.

While no details on the ASA's investigation into have been revealed, one No Man's Sky player has detailed the ASA's response to their complaint.

According to Redditor AzzerUK, both the No Man's Sky developer, Hello Games, and Valve have a joint responsibility and are both being investigated. What is being investigated? Apparently, the following are the most complained about features:


Ship flying behaviour (information; with a ‘wingman’; flying close to the ground)
Behaviour of animals (in herds; destroying scenery; in water; reacting to surroundings)
Large-scale space combat
Structures and buildings as pictured
Flowing water
Speed of galaxy warp/loading time
Aiming systems


Size of creatures (9)
Behaviour of ships and sentinels (4, 5 and :sunglasses:
Structures and buildings as pictured (3)
Store Page in general:

Quality of graphics
References to: lack of loading screens, trade convoys between stars, factions vying over territory
Hello Games and Steam must respond to the ASA, but when they will has not been detailed. If the ASA finds Hello Games and Valve guilty of false advertisement, the items in questions (videos, screenshots etc) will be removed, penalties might even be issued.

And still overpriced.

No Mans Game

At this price, this could be "Some Man's Sky". Heat :smiley:

At this price, this could be "Some Man's Sky". Heat :smiley:

At this price ill give it a look thanks.

Thanks Turkey.

No Mans Game

And still overpriced.

Heat for the price if you haven't tried it - 10/10 for repetition in gameplay

Funny thing is this along with the order 1886 were 2 of the most expensive pre-order games for the ps4 and ended up being 2 of the biggest flops.

I think this is a really good price for this if it would of launched at £20-£25 like it should of for being a indie game it would of received a lot less criticism.

I know :smile:

thanks turkey, couldn't resist at £15, and I'm intrigued after all the reviews.

"overwhelming sense of imagination"

"unprecedented ambition"

bought mine for 35 and got my money back when sold it a week later. i dont think this game is viable at most price points until the developers come out with dlc and **** that incorporate parts of thr game they promised.

Great price, crappy game

free with every bag of walkers crisps next week

No Man’s Sky Being Investigated For False Advertising

Advertising Standards Authority is investigating No Man's Sky for false advertisement
Enough people complained about the game to the ASA to make this happen.
By Tatiana Morris

After the active player count for No Man's Sky dropped below 1,000 players on Steam, it's safe to say that the highly anticipated game had a rather rough release. It appears as though things are getting worse for No Man's Sky, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is investigating the game after receiving "several complaints."

After No Man's Sky released in August for the PlayStation 4 and PC, there were claims from fans of false advertisement perpetuated by the game's creator Sean Murray. False advertisement wasn't the only complaint, there were also bugs that caused quite a few players either refunding the game or simply quit playing.

Even Sony's President believes that No Man's Sky was overpromised by its creator. Throughout all of this, the No Man's Sky developers have been silent - they have yet to comment on claims.

While no details on the ASA's investigation into have been revealed, one No Man's Sky player has detailed the ASA's response to their complaint.

According to Redditor AzzerUK, both the No Man's Sky developer, Hello Games, and Valve have a joint responsibility and are both being investigated. What is being investigated? Apparently, the following are the most complained about features:


Ship flying behaviour (information; with a ‘wingman’; flying close to the ground)
Behaviour of animals (in herds; destroying scenery; in water; reacting to surroundings)
Large-scale space combat
Structures and buildings as pictured
Flowing water
Speed of galaxy warp/loading time
Aiming systems


Size of creatures (9)
Behaviour of ships and sentinels (4, 5 and :sunglasses:
Structures and buildings as pictured (3)
Store Page in general:

Quality of graphics
References to: lack of loading screens, trade convoys between stars, factions vying over territory
Hello Games and Steam must respond to the ASA, but when they will has not been detailed. If the ASA finds Hello Games and Valve guilty of false advertisement, the items in questions (videos, screenshots etc) will be removed, penalties might even be issued.

so glad I got it off PSN at launch..... :disappointed:

ill wait for this to appear in a HUMBLE BUNDLE with other BETTER games. bad game, lieing devs. no more sky to be said

I think that Hello Games did genuinely intend to have all these features in the game, but they likely realised they had to scale back their ambitions considerably because of deadlines (especially after the flooding of their office). They would have saved themselves a lot of hassle if they just admitted that they had to leave so much out.

I have to admit I've been put off this one but that price is what it should have been new with a bit of ps plus discount :smirk: heated :smiley:

used indie game at this price? Cold from me

this has gone cheap fast?

Most overrated game release and being investigated by advertising commission? Could drop cheaper...

This is the price is should have been for the game that was advertised. For the game that was released though it's still too much.

Game is great........for 2 hours and then the repetition dawns on you.

wow that lost value fast!

I purchased this digitally before release. A fool and their money are easily parted and all that. I enjoy it but certainly not had my money's worth. I think £15 is a fair price and a great find. Heat.

out ot stock, new 20 quid.

Out of stock

Completed it mate.

Nearly as overhyped as battlecruiser 3000ad.

played it for 3 hours.. felt lonely. put destiny back on.

Back in stock. Just ordered

Unexpired as it's back in stock, thanks for sharing, just picked one up for my nephew :smiley:

OOS again

It will be in the bargain bins soon enough for £3 at a push.

I think I'd pay £1.50 max.

A great game to play online with your mates...........wait.....what ?

no mans buy

Ouch, don't pre-order especially digitally guys. Too much half baked attempts released now days. Or in this case a bag of lies and broken dreams.

nothing wrong with preordering a physical copy but yep i would never preorder digitally, take this got £15 more than i paid for it when i sold it granted that was just over a week, but thats not the first time i've made money on a game i didn't like.

this really should of been £20 at at launch for what was lacking from it and the hellogames should of emitted that they could not deliver what was promised and people might of look more favourably, but now i can see it bye bye for hello games

Thats the problem with digital releases. With physical copies you can sell on and lose next to nothing.

Please don't bother, even at this price...

I bought into the hype at £47.99 and even Argos didn't question my full refund as they'd already had dozens of copies returned. The game is still unfinished and I won't even go on about the ending.

Check out the "one man's lie" series on YouTube...

Not long till £15 for a new copy until I buy

WTF 47.99 most places had it for about 30-40 at launch, but even at those prices it was not worth it

That Sean guy got what he deserved

What did he get?

Nice to see it at this price - I might pick it up again when back in stock... Have they added anything in the way of content since the original release?

Rich and infamous :stuck_out_tongue:

It didnt turn out quite as expected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KxRp8jeliQ

loads of people have said bad things about the order 1886 but I really enjoyed it

Would highly recommend potential buyers to look into Elite: Dangerous in order to determine the level of immersion, realism, game maturity (E:D has received updates since its 2014 release), and multiplayer interaction the player wants from his or her game. :smiley:

this lawsuit isn't gunna help the company add features that are missing, it's only gunna make things worse. gamers pride and all that.

still waiting on patch news for base building and stuff. it could still be a good game, in a few years.

E:D isn't on PS4... yet, they said it was coming but no news since?

loads of people have said bad things about the order 1886 but I really enjoyed it

To be fair they said from the start to view it as a single-player experience due to the nature of the game. Though the fact that players couldn't actually see each other when they met (in that vid from the release day) is pretty poor. I'm not sure if that's been fixed or will be fixed in a future patch.

Looks like I dodged a bullet on this one, so many have tried to replicate and update the ideas of the famous Elite and failed

As if "indie game" is some all encompassing term that determines a games value.

A million quid in the bank?

That didn't take long...
Playstation Plus next year?

And a destroyed reputation

shockingly bad overrated game.
COLD even is it was £1

With so many great games out there I can't see why anyone would even pay a pound to waste their precious time on this garbage.

The price has dropped quicker than Sam Allardyce's salary, never a good sign. Clearly the favourite in this years Peter Molyneux award for bullshi# and over hyping.

So...? He won't have to work again for the rest of his life. I'd laugh all the way to the bank if I were him. In fact, that's probably exactly what he's been doing.

At this rate PS Plus in time for Christmas!

How many people have actually played this? I never bought into the hype in the first place but was definitely intrigued by it's premise (and I love the band who did the soundtrack.) I personally wouldn't buy it still as I feel I've got all I'm gonna get from it, but having spent a few hours playing at a friends it is a really enjoyable game with a great atmosphere. Granted there doesn't seem to be any real purpose and all of the inventory stuff really bores me, but there's so much mystery with the puzzles and stations, as well as all of the random planets/animals that you see. It's perhaps not as diverse as it was made out to be, but still seems to me to be a truly unique experience. Just not sure why there is so much hate for it?

because they over promised and sold at a premium price and under delivered

I have no particular 'hatred' (for lack of a better word) against hello games for this (i actually feel bad for the guys - esp given ive walked by their offices a couple of times). But man that game was pretty over hyped for 2 years at every sony/e3 conference. Whether it be Sony or Hello games' fault, their insistence on being vague and somewhat hyperbolic (and arguably misleading) with their messaging was ultimately their undoing. Hard to blame consumers on feeling burned when their entire marketing strategy involved not giving a lot of detail and letting imaginations run wild. On the flip side of this here's a easy way not to get burned as a consumer: stop preordering videogames. Especially those who have been on this site long enough know how fast many games drop in price after launch.

No one cares pal.

Now that is a more realistic price for this boring let down of a game.

Sums up NMS in a sentence.

Frontier, but they succeeded. Its called Elite Dangerous.

I know. I usually do flip my games but I honestly thought this game would be one I would never tire of and really wanted it on my hard drive. I loved the concept so much. I was confident in the beginning it would evolve but the deafening silence from the devs means my confidence has nosedived. Lesson learnt. Although I said that after buying Just Cause 3 digitally as well :confused:

So much so you didn't reply ;-)

And now he's getting investigated by authorities rightly for "false advertising" :P

First world problems. We have it so tough. Not the first game to fall short on promises due to release dates. (Dont mention destiny)
Time to move on and get over it guys.
Theres plenty of value there Now for 15 quid. If you still aint happy get a refund and stop dwelling on meaningless matters

boring game play. in the center of the galaxy there is nothing. you just start the game from the beginning after you reach the center. many functions still missing. could be a good game. but not yet.

​Exactly! A great shame though as you could kinda see what they where trying to do. I think Sony are more to blame than Hello

I seem to be in the minority here but I really like this game. Sank a lot of hours into it. Yeah there's issues with repetition and missing features but HG are working on adding more free content. Worth £20 imo

How low can it go haha. it's worth £10. Can't believe I spent £50 on this :disappointed:

£15 is what the game should've cost since launch. So, have some heat. :smiley:

The only time I ever spent £50 on a game was when it was a special edition, otherwise, I just wait for price drops.

Sorry accidentally pressed report on your comment and not reply. I doubt anything will come of that, read this for more info. Seems a bit ridiculous if you ask me http://www.pcgamer.com/nms-lawyers/

It's buy used £25 now, but the new price is still the same

I got this at launch and it is possibly the biggest gaming regret of the year. Hardly touched it after the first day or two. Was over priced at launch and don't live upto the hype which is a shame. Had so much promise. Even at this price knowing what I do now I would hesitate, I suspect it will drop further over the next month or so.

Have some heat because it's cheap but this should have just been an indie game from the store not a full release!

Heat for the price, being a deal website and all, but sadly a PS4 game I won't bite at

this pretty much sums it up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZLSffRsdfw

You can't argue with the criticism, but I think we'll look back at this game in 10 years time and judge it as a defining moment in gaming. It will be seen as the starting point of when imagination was overtaken by simulation. Fortunately we live in the present, and if it's a choice between discovering another lonely planet or stacking the dishwasher, I'm gonna have to ask you to pass me your plate.

You know, this is a really good game... for the first 10 hours or so. Then you realise it's just the same thing over and over again, not even a 'good' grind. The framework is there for it to be excellent - I think the developers just need to listen to people and deliver something special in the next 6 months or so.

Rather not have this on PS Plus unless the bugs are fixed. I doubt it will though, Sony seem to have thrown Hello Games overboard in media interviews post-release.

I actually want this and I also knew months before that it didn't look like it really would be the groundbreaking thing that websites and most of the general public thought it was going to be , people paying full price and even more for digital versions on day 1 where stupid.
£15 sounds like a decent deal and if I don't enjoy it then well I knew from hearing others what to expect and won't feel the need to rant on every forum or post mentioning it !!! Mugs .

Arrived this morning can't complain!

Back in stock but £20 now :disappointed:

gonna pick it up when it gets to under a tenner, in a weeks time.

£50 rrp was a shocking decision which left many feeling ripped off but at £20 it's about right, it's definitely not the 1/10 most people are leading you to believe.

i must be a glutton for punishment i still want this game lol