Many have found No Man’s Sky fell short of expectations, and one high profile person has come forth to voice his concerns: Geoff Keighley.
The longtime games journalist and Game Awards producer had many revealing anecdotes about No Man’s Sky and its figurehead Sean Murray in a recent video he made titled “LIVE with YouTube Gaming: Titanfall 2, No Man’s Sky, Dear Bosman”. In it, he says a great many things about the game. Most catchy amongst them: “I don’t think No Man’s Sky is a bad game. It’s just unfinished and repetitive because let’s face it, games are crafted by skilled story-tellers and big teams. Math can’t always create meaning.”
Some other important quotes:
“The last time I saw [Sean Murray] was back in March and he told me then that he really didn’t want to be around me that much anymore because he thought I was being a little too negative about the game and my assessment of where the team was at. They were under an incredible amount of pressure … The fact that a small 15 person team built and shipped a game like No Man’s Sky is a stunning achievement.
“We all wanted to believe in No Man’s Sky and Sean did too – so much that he was never able to build up the gumption to rip off that band-aid and reveal what was and wasn’t in the game … maybe the platform we gave him to launch the game was too big and created this black hole that he couldn’t pull himself out of.
“But no matter what, you have to be honest with you fans. You can’t lie. And Sean wanted to preserve the promise and mystery of the game so much, he started to disrespect his audience. Those of you who paid for it have every right to be disappointed if you felt misled.
“I always held out hope that they’d finally come together and pull it together or they’d change their strategy, but what’s happened has happened and the big question is ‘where does No Man’s Sky go now?'”
Keighley also referenced recent contact with Murray, and that Murray may come on a later edition of “LIVE with YouTube Gaming” to discuss what happened. Keighley’s words also reflect concerns voiced by Sony’s President— although the latter was more hopeful.