After five years, No Man's Sky finally hits the Mostly Positive review threshold on Steam

[Delusibeta]

For the uninitiated, Steam summarises user reviews based on what proportion of reviews are positive. The summaries are also split into Recent (last 30 days) and All.

No Man's Sky infamously launched overhyped and undercooked, which lead to its Steam user reviews being dreadful, at one point being one of the rare handful of games to be labelled Overwhelmingly Negative (sub-20% positive reviews). However, with Hello Games' diligent work, No Man's Sky recovered, and has spent a large proportion of the last half-decade labelled as Mixed (40-69% positive reviews). And yet, the positive reviews kept outnumbering the negative reviews, and today:



113.4k positive reviews out of the 162k reviews from users who bought the game directly on Steam. 70%. Mostly Positive.



It's been a long, hard, road, but I think it's fair to say Sean and the whole Hello Games team deserves congratulations for one of the biggest recoveries from a bungled launch in the history of video games.

 

[MinerArcaniner]

The way they turned this game's reputation around is truly remarkable. A comeback story for the ages.

 

[Kard8p3]

There have even been people who originally had negative reviews, only to go back and change it to positive.

It's really awesome to see, I was hyped for this on Day 1, disliked it and got a refund from Sony. Bought it again on steam a few years back and man the devs really love this game to put all this work into it, for free.

 

[Lashley]

Amazing turnaround for the game

 

[PAFenix]

Good to see.

 

[SoH]

I was randomly digging through some old images recently and came across this likes/dislikes graph I made for the various trailers up to that time (2018). I should update it again.

 

[grimrepo]

Deserved

 

[jroc74]

The way they turned this game's reputation around is truly remarkable. A comeback story for the ages.

Click to shrink...

Yup.

And there is so much to do...it took me months to realize I didnt have to try to survive on a planet that had toxic air.

I went to a planet with better habitat...but it was so barren.... The gameplay loop for this game is amazing, varied and so open.

 

[Justin Bailey]

The thing is, if they never oversold on the concept in the first place and pissed everyone off at launch, they probably wouldn't have gotten here.

 

[Klyka]

5 years ago I made this video, joining everyone else in making fun of just how absolutely overhyped the game was on launch


Nowadays I look forward to each new update and jump in for a little bit to just explore and have fun.
The game truly has come a long long way

 

[Wrexis]

The way they turned this game's reputation around is truly remarkable. A comeback story for the ages.

Click to shrink...

It's up there with FF14 as an all time turn around.

 

[tinyrakan]

Same thing happened with 76 lately

 

[Van Bur3n]

This game has been an amazing game longer than it was a bad one to struggle to hit to overall positive reviews for so long. But I suppose it really got review bombed upon initial release.

 

[Doskoi Panda]

I just started playing the game last month. I think it's pretty fucking awesome. It has its issues and quirks, and jank aplenty... but it still feels really unique. Just a chill-ass lite survival game that's hiding a LOT of really cool secrets, where you're pretty regularly rewarded with something new and interesting every time you dig a little deeper into the game world and its systems. I don't know how long NMS has been like this, but it feels to me like a kind of timeless game. A game that can and probably will continue to be improved and iterated upon into the future, a game that'll only get bigger and more noteworthy with time.

Even now, it's my favorite VR game for just hanging out and passing time with my friends, and that's not a role I was expecting this game to fill for me when I first tried it a few weeks back. I just thought, hey, might as well give it a shot since it's on Game Pass, right? Since a few friends and family are playing it. Might as well see what this game is actually like for myself. After a few hours busting ass to complete the tutorials at the beginning of the game, I decided to set up my Oculus Quest and see what the game was like in VR... and it's dope. Really novel and occasionally mind-blowing. Mind you, the sense of depth is a little bit lacking compared to what I was expecting, and NMS doesn't feature some of the more intricate and granular VR interactivity that other VR mainstays do... but the actual gameplay experience of NMS is considerably enhanced in VR. Moving around, building, aiming your Multi-Tool, piloting your ship, dogfighting vs pirates... it all feels so much smoother in VR to me, and that's really cool. Now I won't play flatscreen unless I have to, lol. And I can still play with my friends and family on other platforms like Xbox and PC! It's fun being the 'VR guy' in a cross-platform group lol

Anyone who's had this game on their mind but haven't tried it yet... do it. At least come and see what you've been missing, so you can know whether or not it's something you'll enjoy. I feel like this game is going to reach and stick with a lot more people over the next few years if Hello Games continues to support it the way that they have, and I'm looking forward to that.

 

[Z-Beat]

Time to review bomb to keep them humble

 

[Crossing Eden]

As it should

 

[PerrierChaud]

The thing is, if they never oversold on the concept in the first place and pissed everyone off at launch, they probably wouldn't have gotten here.

Click to shrink...

You mean if Playstation hasn't put them on the spot like the second coming of Jesus at every PS4 event because they needed some artsy indie output? Yeah sure
Most of what happened come from just poor media & peer pressure that decided to make a modest game a much bigger deal than what it really was

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

I've never seen a game turn things around and just keep going, like No Man's Sky.

 

[Justin Bailey]

You mean if Playstation hasn't put them on the spot like the second coming of Jesus at every PS4 event because they needed some artsy indie output? Yeah sure
Most of what happened come from just poor media & peer pressure that decided to make a modest game a much bigger deal than what it really was

Click to shrink...

I think that's probably letting them off the hook more than they deserve, but my main point is that sometimes it takes a bit of salesmanship to succeed in this industry and they pulled it off well.

 

[Lemony1984]

Glad to see it's turned around but it's still shit that they basically charged people up front for the expansions, and I'd say most of those early adapters dropped off and didn't come back. Never should have been 60 dollars.

 

[Kitano]

Fucking fantastic

 

[scottbeowulf]

This game was wild at launch and honestly I loved it. But now it's really turned into something else. Huge effort from the team and the passion shows.

 

[Vilam]

Good for them. They put in the work to deserve it.

 

[viandante]

bummer no one was ever prosecuted for threatening to murder these people.

 

[jman2050]

Sean Murray proved me wrong, he and his staff were committed to their game and they delivered in spades despite totally being able to pack their bags and go home from strong initial sales to their sub-standard first release.

The game is still not everything that they promised, but it never needed to be from the start and I think the team realized that. Quite an impressive turnaround story.

 

[SoH]

There we go. Combined Sony and HelloGames videos as I could and flipped it to logarithmic. Interesting note is the Foundation trailer was not posted to the main Playstation account, only Playstation Europe. Presumably due to the backlash. Included the PS Europe video as well to try and paint the complete picture.

Title	Likes	Dislikes	Link (Sony)	Link (HelloGames)
E3 (2014)	58,424	8,027	https://youtu.be/nLtmEjqzg7M
Gameplay Trailer (2014)	26,841	1,546	https://youtu.be/nmwG6Sj1Yfg
Launch Trailer (2016)	13,567	3,918	https://youtu.be/aozqa_7PLhE
Foundation (2016)	27,100	12,497	https://youtu.be/vpkXfzkmBVY	https://youtu.be/hI9PvjJJijY
Path Finder (2017)	16,121	4,616	https://youtu.be/VbSkJxbsRSg	https://youtu.be/ZDNtbosTCvo
Atlas Rises (2017)	26,114	5,235	https://youtu.be/pYSYOGT3KGc	https://youtu.be/5328iuzHw-w
NEXT (2018)	59,424	7,563	https://youtu.be/e5d5Mo-Gw_U	https://youtu.be/h3HphgSn0o4
The Abyss (2018)	20,525	1,354	https://youtu.be/07zls0vZEXc	https://youtu.be/YIrCX5PomuA
Visions (2018)	26,885	1,158	https://youtu.be/cAhQSSKeOOc	https://youtu.be/IoBOFTi-zAk
Beyond (2019)	34,740	1,725	https://youtu.be/UkMuL1o12tE	https://youtu.be/5ILqZ9mI2Oo
Living Ship (2020)	13,633	277	https://youtu.be/kOnxsfDnW7w	https://youtu.be/LLSj0O1-Fc4
Exo Mech (2020)	14,888	368	https://youtu.be/aTQnwqshSqw	https://youtu.be/yZ8m9cxFKNo
Desolation (2020)	13,972	368	https://youtu.be/a3jXnkLip6I	https://youtu.be/MaCT6L4R7bU
Origins (2020)	44,032	971	https://youtu.be/_5KpR4F12Cs	https://youtu.be/0DNoSn9W2vI
Next Generation (2020)	50,657	1,024	https://youtu.be/hxMHFOJm_wE	https://youtu.be/jRnOtGftJek
Companions (2021)	16,153	265	https://youtu.be/LlJMwhOQ30U	https://youtu.be/i2wNFByBo3s
Expeditions (2021)	19,761	335	https://youtu.be/spFuQ2ezJVc	https://youtu.be/O7T0_admYi4
Prisms (2021)	38,723	524	https://youtu.be/kqwZ3apT6ok	https://youtu.be/NRhamOB3-Rc
5th Anniversary (2021)	13,734	190	https://youtu.be/mM9RUbip7gQ	https://youtu.be/BCFF3zJPEec
Frontiers (2021)	22,078	286	https://youtu.be/gliQa9KMteM	https://youtu.be/udDXRQMPyKQ

 

[Qvoth]

Huge respect

 

[Bigjig]

Massive props to Sean and the team. I don't really get the economics of the situation though. Surely sales of a five year old game aren't enough to keep them afloat forever. Are they working on anything else besides building on NMS?

 

[Netherscourge]

The game was still amazing even at launch IMO.

The scope of everything was insane even then.

 

[Magic-Man]

Massive props to Sean and the team. I don't really get the economics of the situation though. Surely sales of a five year old game aren't enough to keep them afloat forever. Are they working on anything else besides building on NMS?

Click to shrink...

They just released The Last Campfire, a smaller puzzle game. Don't know how much it sold, but it got great reviews.

 

[TheCrackedJack]

CD Projekt Red be like

 

[Sophistry]

The finances of this company being able to chug along for 5 years doing updates yet staying in business blows my mind. A true unicorn business model.

 

[Snake Eater]

How do they get the funding to continually make these massive updates free?

 

[ergoakari]

Massive props to Sean and the team. I don't really get the economics of the situation though. Surely sales of a five year old game aren't enough to keep them afloat forever. Are they working on anything else besides building on NMS?

Click to shrink...

I don't know about that. I would assume it's been selling steadily here and there with the new platform launches, enhanced next-gen features and updates. I would be very surprised if NMS lifetime sales was under 6-7 million across all platforms, it might even be higher than that. I remember Sean saying in 2019 or something that their previous year did numbers a AAA game would be happy to get at launch. It's very popular and they are a small studio that had Sony funding as part of the initial dev cost. They support it out of their own pocket, but they're almost surely doing very well.

 

[Hero_Select]

I tried to play this game with my friend a couple months back and it was just.. so insanely buggy - especially the base building where weird things would happen and the ground would not stay terraformed and things.

The game is still insanely repetitive and you're constantly hunting resources. If anyone is enjoying it then more power to them but we went from this to Valheim and had a shit ton of more fun.

 

[secretanchitman]

I tried to play this game with my friend a couple months back and it was just.. so insanely buggy - especially the base building where weird things would happen and the ground would not stay terraformed and things.

The game is still insanely repetitive and you're constantly hunting resources. If anyone is enjoying it then more power to them but we went from this to Valheim and had a shit ton of more fun.

Click to shrink...

This is exactly what happened with my friends and I - we all tried the game on Game Pass PC a few months ago and it was very buggy and unfortunately boring for us. I'm glad to see the game has come a long way and more people are enjoying it though.

 

[ghibli99]

How do they get the funding to continually make these massive updates free?

Click to shrink...

Can only assume with each major update, it attracts either a new audience or those who were still on the fence after all these years to finally purchase the game.

 

[xpownz]

I'm really loving it.
It's amazing.

 

[BobLoblaw]

I've been voting for the "Labor of Love" award for them for the past 3 years but you people keep voting for someone else. :|

 

[labx]

Redemption arc: completed. I'm very glad for the studio. I was there on day one.

 

[CosmicGP]

Congrats. I bought No Man's Sky one or two years ago when it was already decent, was pretty shocked the big updates that came later were free.

CD Projekt Red be like

Click to shrink...

If only. I wonder if they'd be equally as dedicated. They still have The Witcher as their cash cow, and they're still rich.

Most I can hope is they continue fixing the game, then work hard on making the sequel what the game was supposed to be (banking on consumers' short memories, unfortunately).

 

[Cheesy]

I tried to play this game with my friend a couple months back and it was just.. so insanely buggy - especially the base building where weird things would happen and the ground would not stay terraformed and things.

The game is still insanely repetitive and you're constantly hunting resources. If anyone is enjoying it then more power to them but we went from this to Valheim and had a shit ton of more fun.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I tried it awhile back too. All the stuff they added just seems to be distractions in your journey of flying to a planet, mining resources so you can fly to another planet to get resources to fly to another planet and so on and so forth.

 

[Ales34]

They can be proud. The turnaround was incredible. One of the best comebacks in gaming history no doubt.

 

[Hero_Select]

Yeah I tried it awhile back too. All the stuff they added just seems to be distractions in your journey of flying to a planet, mining resources so you can fly to another planet to get resources to fly to another planet and so on and so forth.

Click to shrink...

Exactly that. The "combat" was pretty non-existent and very poor and all the copy/paste building that you come across are cool at first but you quickly realize that there's just nothing in them.

Go to planet, find signal, hunt resources. Rinse and repeat. I never felt like I was discovering anything either.. there's outposts and aliens littered all over every single planet.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

How do they get the funding to continually make these massive updates free?

Click to shrink...

By keeping the price mid-high.

 

[jett]

You gotta be impressed with how they turned it all around and how they've supported this game since. This game was a huge success at launch and they could've easily said fuck it.

 

[Sealord of Braavos]

Better turnaround, NMS or SoT?

 

[baconcow]

As someone frustrated at the launch version, it is quite incredible, now. The only issue, IMO, is optimization.

How do they get the funding to continually make these massive updates free?

Click to shrink...

5-10 million sales on PC and additional on console.

Better turnaround, NMS or SoT?

Click to shrink...

Sea of Thieves? If so, NMS.

 

[Beer Monkey]

I love it. I just wish they'd add proper gamepad support to VR mode on PC. The motion tracked DS4 control on PSVR is amazing. I've triple dipped on the game (PS physical, PS digital, PC) but not at all wild about the Touch controller options.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

Oh, I thought those tweets were about finally getting past 69% as far as memes are concerned.