Sean Murray Asks Early Players/Reviewers To Wait for Day 1 Patch

As you probably heard some players and games press have obtained early copies of No Man’s Sky to start playing it early because Sony isn’t sending out review copies until Monday August 8. This is because Hello Games is working on the Day 1 patch that will add new things to the game and probably fix some issues as well.

[uth11]

If he would have made this tweet a week ago, it would have spared so much drama, lol

[starrman1985]

Agreed, I can't help but feel like the initial leaker actually helped out the team a lot. I know he got a lot of crap for it all but he basically beta tested the game for us and probably instigated some of the changes that were made for the day one patch.

[zombiewombie]

Hello Games started working on the update like a month ago, and finished it like a day after the dude showed the game footage.

[medman]

Starrman1985
Your theory is highly improbable..... 1. It is unlikely that the leaker did anything in his game that the No Man's Sky dev team hasn't done in all their playthroughs over the years, or their bots have done and 2. that game changes can be made this quickly...those "changes" have most likely been in planning for quite some time and the team has been crunching for months to get the patch ready for day one.

[rainslacker]

Compliance testing on Sony's part takes 1-2 weeks if it's sped through the process....which it would be for a soon to be releasing game from the console maker itself or a major partner for a major game. The actual update coming was submitted to Sony before this game got leaked to the internet. Minor changes could have been made in that time and pushed through, but no day one update would be started, tested, and submitted a week before release, because it can cause serious issues with the system or the game if it doesn't go through the standard approval process. That's the model that all console makers have had since Nintendo's Seal of Quality....which came about to prevent software that didn't run from reaching the consumer.

[gigoran]

yeah... I think a lot of paid individuals beta tested the game and assisted with making it better. that guy? just an attention seeker. nothing more

[Orbilator]

And if people didn't break the street date then he wouldn't need to tweet. It a&&holes trying to get one up by playing games early.

[clevernickname]

How, exactly, is someone an asshole for playing the game early?

[Overload]

The patch seems pretty substantial, they made Polygon and Kotaku remove their videos for not being representative of the final product.

The art director tweeted today about part of the patch being more colors added to the Universe.

[gigoran]

I think they made kotaku remove their videos simply because they are kotaku

[Rimeskeem]

I trust Sean Murray. He's been working on this game for 6 years. No way he would let his team down or everyone else down.

[C-H-E-F]

technically 3 years they lost all of the data after the E3 debut in a flood....

[Rimeskeem]

Well yes, but that's still 3 extra years of his life spent on making one game.

[MasterCornholio]

Must be a very important patch then. Maybe it fixes those crashes that the leaker had?

[Lon3wolf]

Yeah not sure why you were down voted lol, Kotaku's stream did crash unless the crashing due to playing early.

[MasterCornholio]

I remember they said they delayed the game due to some serious performance issues.

I'm guessing this patch fixes some pretty big ones.

[KillZallthebeast]

Gotta give sean and his whole team a lot of credit for being so open with the community. Too many devs just don't care about the fans experience anymore and just want to cash in. Hate the game or not they seem like a good team.

[Mr-Dude]

I am waiting a long time for this game, but the whole "open with the community" I disagree.
If they would talked about the day 1 patch earlier, a lot of crap could have been avoided.

Let alone the very few lines of info on this game. It is thanks to the streamers, that people know what this game is all about.

[KillZallthebeast]

The fact that they have yet to lie or show fake footage of their game, and freely show live in game footage tells me they not only have confidence in their product, but a bit of pride in what they made. I can see why they want to keep some of the deeper details secret, not because it is shallow and awful, but because the genuinely want to have their fans be surprised at every step. It's a refreshing step from "lets make a flashy trailer and then move on"

[Orbilator]

And like I said, it's idiot breaking street dates that cause all these problems, can't really remember any game released that hasn't had day 1 patch so EVERYONE knew there would be.

[iceman06]

So the countless interviews, the half hours (more than one) walk through videos, the myriad of trailers did nothing to explain "what the game is all about"?
As I said before, if you don't know by now it's willful ignorance (you don't care enough to watch everything) or it's some seriously bad attempt at trolling. The only things that haven't been explored are the discoveries and secrets that Hello Games wants to keep close to the chest. Plus, there are things that the devs themselves are still discovering about these 18 quintillion planets because the universe is so vast and varied. The only thing the streamers did is provide more video evidence as to whether it works or not.

[Pongwater]

They talked about a day one patch well before the game leaked.

I've watched several streams and seen very little that wasn't shown in various gameplay videos over the last year or more.

[Perjoss]

I dont blame them, the success of this game is a massive deal for them seeing as they are such a small indie team.

[Harkins1721]

It's only fair

[Gh05t]

It's fair to release a game that's so bad it needs a day one patch because it fundamentally transforms a game from a point where a reviewer couldn't make an honest assessment of it until it is patched... That's fair? It's been gold for what 3 weeks, if they did that much work in three weeks maybe they should have delayed it again and just released a copy that idk worked to the point someone could play it and write a review.

[iceman06]

Like this is the first time that a studio has had a day one patch that they felt improved the game. Seriously, it's a huge undertaking and literally a team of less than 20 people. (for the most of development, it was 10-12 people) So, getting it straight, the game is in fine working condition right now. However, like any artist and perfectionist, Sean wants the game viewed and reviewed in the best state possible. From what I understand, the patch worked out the pacing, added more color variety, and added some more animal combinations. It has nothing to do with the game being "so bad" and more to do with the anxiety of a perfectionist (which Sean Murray is a self proclaimed one) having anxiety about having thr game judged without elements that he thinks will improve the experience.

[medman]

@ghost
You must be a toddler if you aren't aware that many, if not most, games these days have day one patches. It is just the times we live in man. Game development and design is difficult, the time crunch is real, and the dev teams work right up to, through, and long after launch day to improve their games. This is not new. This is not unique.

[Harkins1721]

Some game devs purposely gimp their games so if an early copy / pirated copy goes out the whole world isnt spoiled. So yes it is fair upon release day.

[Artemidorus]

I applaude these guys efforts and they care a massive amount for the presentation of the game and giving the user a better experience.

If big companies could follow suit with the same speed and attitude then we would all have a better gaming experience.

[Gecksta]

No reviews until day one. And the compulsory need to fix shit day one patch. Think ill pass on this .

[Summons75]

Probably a sign that the game needed more time in the oven instead of being rushed out the door. Anyway, whatever maybe in the patch probably will fix the serious game breaking bugs the game has but I doubt it has anything that will seriously shake up the game from a walking simulator I've been watching yesterday to something that has more of a reason to play then no story and no missions.

[iceman06]

If you are expecting more than what you have seen in the streams, you got the wrong game. While it's far from a "walking simulator", it's not a narrative driven action game. It's just not...and it never WAS. It's a survival exploration game. The fighting and trading are a means to an end of extending your ability to survive and explore further into the universe. It's more akin to games like Ark, Terraria, Don't Starve, Subnautica, etc. than something like Mass Effect. The more people understand this, the more they can keep their expectations in check and enjoy it for what it is. Or, avoid it because their expectations outweighed what the game was meant to be.

[EazyC]

Never has there been so much riding on a single videogame's reception. It could go either way, hope it's 10/10 across the board

[KillZallthebeast]

Ugh all the hate on this game going off this articles comment section alone...Yeah it's an indie game made by a small team, and is charged at full price. It deserves it unlike AAA games with a linear story of 8-12 hours at most if you are lucky and a team that overshadows this dev by ten fold. Titles, rank, prestige mean nothing if the developer stops caring. AAA titles have been as of late mostly remakes of things that worked in the past. I see so many people complaining about everything being the same ect., but the second someone does try another formula there is a hoard of people ready to bash it into the ground.

[Donjune]

Been watching this game on video streams and it looks like a piece of trash!

[Pongwater]

Been watching this game on video streams and it looks great!

[DrShoe]

Been reading Donjune's posts and he writes like a troll covered by trash!

[Tokasmke]

How can you review this game? Everyone will have a different experience and nobody will ever completely see everything this game has to offer. It's going to be great!

[rainslacker]

Basically review what it does have to offer, and say how the experience will be different for everyone. Some aspects will remain consistent for everyone, such as controls, features, or overall game play, it's just the content itself which will be "randomized".

[GNCFLYER]

Judging these comments there must not be a lot to play on xbone right now.

I think most of the games ive bought have day 1 patches.

[Pongwater]

Arguably their best exclusive this year is coming to PS4 already so they're understandably bitter.

OT - Good luck with that Sean, but these are humans on the internet. We all know how that goes. See Twitch chat and YouTube comments for examples.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

He should have just delayed the game til it was ready.SOME damage has been done already but also some good has come out of its early release. One more week delay would have been ok with me.

[Overload]

No Man's Sky is definitely doing damage.
https://www.amazon.com/best...

It's the 43rd best seller of 2016 and it hasn't even released yet.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/b...

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

You really think sales matter to the people who saw glitches or crashes or heard about beating the game in under 30 hours? Sales don't matter to those people so to point out sales as if it's the holy grail is crazy. Some people will be turned of by what they SAW THEMSELVES. This is where the damage comes in.

[Overload]

You're kidding right?

[rainslacker]

Just looked through that list, and seems NMS will sell more than any single SKU of the X1 console itself in 2016. Also bumped up to 38 since you posted your comment, so that's a lot sold in the last 9 hours considering how it's going up past some other major games. Quite a lot of PS Blue in that 2nd list.

[Pongwater]

No good has been done. The day one patch was finished before all this "drama" really got rolling.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

No patch can change the fundamental gameplay. Asking reviewers to wait to review the game is stupid as well. This whole situation reeks of damage control.

[GOODKylePS]

Shouldn't have shipped it when the plan being to focus on a Day 1 patch. Sick and tired of developers releasing/shipping games before they're ready.

[Kallisti]

Lol. If I had a copy of the game, I sure as hell wouldn't be waiting for a patch before I started playing it