No Man’s Sky, a redemption story for Hello Games, has now reached “Mostly Positive” Steam reviews five years after launch.
The game’s launch was infamously bad; riddled with bugs and missing features. As noted in the humorous documentary by Internet Historian, many felt they had been scammed; despite Hello Games having suffered a flood. In addition, Sony Interactive Entertainment (who aided with promotion and publishing a the time) offered no public relations support for Murray when he was on camera.
After the launch, Hello Games updated the game extensively- salvaging the reputation of the game and the studio. Murray would later highlight Internet Historian’s video on Twitter, showing a clear approval of what was presented. Even memes mocking the game on launch were later updated by others to show the game in a more positive light.
22 major updates and five years later, the game’s Steam page notes that reviews are now “Mostly Positive.” 70% of the 129,721 reviews would recommend the game. 90% of the 3,922 reviews in the last 30 days would recommend the game. However, the game’s negative reviews in the first four months- totaling 34,116- still remain.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Hello Games’ Tim Woodley explained that the improved review score was hard earned. “Each percentage point becomes exponentially harder to earn as you move up the ratings. Moving from 20 percent positive to 21 percent positive may only require a few hundred positive reviews whereas moving from 69 percent to 70 percent needed 10,000 positive reviews.”
“This is why it’s so rare for games to change their All-Time rating and why we’d assumed that we might never be able to.” Eurogamer report the game’s review score was “Overwhelmingly Negative” on launch, and moving to “Mixed” took two years thereafter. The next three tiers would be Positive, Very Positive, and Overwhelmingly Positive. How far will No Man’s Sky go?
In case you missed it, the recent Frontiers update has added procedurally generated alien towns, better base building, and more.
No Man’s Sky is currently available for Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
