The head of Hello Games and No Man’s Sky, Sean Murray, advises games that have received criticism, like Anthem or Fallout 76, on how best to handle criticism after launch: They should let the community complain and remain silent.
The situation of No Man’s Sky: The space game No Man’s Sky had a release no game developer wishes for. The hype was huge, but at launch in August 2016, many players were disappointed. They did not receive what they had expected. There were accusations of fraud, waves of returns, and massive criticism.
However, No Man’s Sky has recovered from this rocky start and released the Foundation Update in November 2016, which significantly improved the game. Since then, No Man’s Sky has been on an upward trajectory, and the community loves Hello Games and fully supports them again.
One can say that Hello Games knows how to get out of such situations and bring the community back to their side.
The advice of the head of No Man’s Sky to other development studios
Murray says: The head of No Man’s Sky simply advises to remain calm. It is important to focus on development work and not to confront the angry crowd. He says:
“It took us about two years to even talk to the press, and we worked for about three months without saying anything to the community. That was really hard. I sat down so many times and wrote the perfect blog post that was supposed to explain everything about the development of the game and the roadmap. But I could see that it wasn’t credible given the situation we were in.”
Sean Murray at the developer conference in Brighton
It is therefore more important to complete the game than to explain to the community what is planned. The players are already angry and without action, nothing will change.
Talking doesn’t help as long as the situation is stuck
No Man’s Sky has shown this, and that is exactly what Murray advises games like Anthem or Fallout 76, which are currently under fire from their communities.
“There have been a number of games that have since [the launch of No Man’s Sky] been released, had a polarizing start, and this explosive mix of many players and some issues. And I can see that EA, Microsoft, or Bethesda are trying to placate players by just talking to them, but whether it was true or not, it just doesn’t really work. You see it all the time when a major publisher talks to the community and tries to solve the problem, and then they get more and more entangled in it and lose sight of the actual problem.”
Sean Murray at the developer conference in Brighton
What about the affected games? Surprisingly, both games seem to follow this advice.
In May, the game’s Twitter account posted very few messages, and the developers seem to focus more on development.
And recently, it seems that something is happening: New interesting weapons have appeared on the PTS.
Fallout 76 also seems to be on the upswing after a while and is breaking with initial design decisions. They now plan to introduce NPCs after all.
A surprisingly launched free-to-play mode that brought battle royale to the game gained positive feedback. They didn’t really showcase it; they just released it.
What do you think? Can you relate to Murray’s advice, or would you prefer a developer who maintains constant contact with the community?
Our title image comes from Gamesradar.
