this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Why are people still romanticizing No Man’s Sky’s “redemption” arc? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by TalkingFlower@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
86 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This might be unpopular, but it feels like the “redemption” story around No Man’s Sky has become more of a cultural comfort narrative than an honest look at what happened.

Let’s be real — most of those updates were just delivering delayed promises, not generosity. The game we were originally sold was missing a lot of advertised features, and Hello Games never actually apologized for lying. On top of that, every update brings more bugs and half-fixed systems, and the community acts like free beta testers for Light No Fire, while still framing it all as “passion” and “commitment.”

It’s like Hello Games built a shoddy, unfinished building, declared it open anyway, and then decided to use it as a testing ground for their next building — and somehow it wins “Best Ongoing Building” every year.

So why do people keep buying into this narrative? Because it’s a comfortable story? Or is it somekind of parasocial relationship going on there?

NMS made 78 million in 2016, this can't be compared to a failed AAA game or indies where devs walk away from financial failure, another emotional argument?

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/09/30/august-2016-digital-sales-report-no-mans-sky-generated-78-million/)

According to the number of upvotes, it seems that their angst is a reflection of the game industry in general. Hello Games had indeed performed to expectations by not walking away, but does that warrant mythologising the redemption arc? Even when the state of the game is buggy?

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[–] TalkingFlower@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

"They have updated the game, for free, and still have no microtransactions"

These are the good practices in a sea of bad actors, but that's how the fans use Hello Games to attack the AAA industry by constantly misplacing and comparing it with AAA games, not to mention mythologising them, even though they have never asked for it. Once you recalibrate your perspective, you will see that long-term developments and updates are normal in indies; maybe that's where Hello Games belongs?

[–] Yarny@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What makes you so upset over people "attacking" the AAA industry? Most of the big AAA players release literal garbage, games filled with anti-consumer practices. Not only do they tend to release "unfinished" like No Mans Sky did, but they also have DRM, microtransactions, third party launchers + accounts that take your data. Who cares if they get attacked? I honestly wish people would do more.

I don't really understand what it is you have a problem with.

[–] TalkingFlower@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

It’s a satire :)

I get that you are upset with AAA games. Honestly, I’ve managed to avoid them for a long time. But I think Hello games is not an ideal studio either; Murray did lie about the feature at release, the updates have only met minimum of professional standards, and 10 years later it is still a bland tofu of a space game, wrapped in years of technical debt, while NMS being a test bench for LNF as a fanbase look to the other way…they are doing ok…

I just find it funny that in a sea of garbage (not as a puddle), people will grab anything shiny and call it a diamond, while ignoring the gem cave by the shore and then ask, “What is wrong? Why are you laughing?”

The good devs never needed a redemption arc; never needed a cultural reframe to be good.