Overhyping No Man’s Sky Was A Big Mistake
No Man’s Sky will probably go down in gaming history as one of the biggest disappointments Playstation fans and gamers, as a whole, have ever experienced to this day. Sure, it’s not exactly a bad game per se – its ambition and scale are noteworthy and as a demonstration of some very impressive procedurally generated technology it still somewhat blows my mind – but it’s just such a missed opportunity that the actual game is as shallow as a puddle. Sure, it’s a bloody humungous puddle, but it’s a puddle nonetheless.
The fact that Sony got behind it so much and gave the game so much mindshare and time at big gaming conventions only helped to add fuel to the frenzied hype machine. In many ways, No Man’s Sky is a lesson to not only Hello Games and Sony, but it’s also a lesson for us: temper those expectations, and be cautious not to dive headfirst onto the hype bandwagon for fear of disappointment.
Because that is what No Man’s Sky ultimately was for myself and for many, many others. I know hype culture helps to grease the wheels, it’s just a shame that these wheels were en-route to a pretty steep cliff. I wish Sony had the vision to see that and not throw the lion’s share of its marketing budget behind it.