Hello games lied continually though, that was the major problem
This wasn’t just an unfinished game, but the continual deception stating things existed post launch that simply didn’t, that work was already done when it wasn’t, and those who saw the product were lying or misrepresenting the facts.
That’s not the fault of sony that’s just straight up lying. They said, post launch, features existed that would take years to develop. They said pre launch that features would exits on launch that would again, take years to complete. Knowing the deadline.
They did eventually make what they promised. They didn’t have to lie though. That’s them, not sony.
As for arrowhead games? Yeah, that’s less their fault and more Sony’s, but they still share blame.
I might be wrong about this, but if I remember right, the PR team for NMS and the dev team had pretty much zero communication. Sony kept hyping the game up, very much making promises that the devs were trying to keep. However during development it became increasingly that they either need to push back on the release date or drop some features, neither of which Sony was ready to do. At that point it was already too late: the hype was built.
So instead of trying to do damage control Sony just pushed Murray in the focus, probably hoping he and his company would take the fall. Honestly it feels hard to blame him for what happened. He, at the time, was just an incredibly ambitious indie dev with no idea on how to manage expectations.
I feel like with Sony as your publisher, you don’t need enemies.
Hello games lied continually though, that was the major problem
This wasn’t just an unfinished game, but the continual deception stating things existed post launch that simply didn’t, that work was already done when it wasn’t, and those who saw the product were lying or misrepresenting the facts.
That’s not the fault of sony that’s just straight up lying. They said, post launch, features existed that would take years to develop. They said pre launch that features would exits on launch that would again, take years to complete. Knowing the deadline.
They did eventually make what they promised. They didn’t have to lie though. That’s them, not sony.
As for arrowhead games? Yeah, that’s less their fault and more Sony’s, but they still share blame.
I might be wrong about this, but if I remember right, the PR team for NMS and the dev team had pretty much zero communication. Sony kept hyping the game up, very much making promises that the devs were trying to keep. However during development it became increasingly that they either need to push back on the release date or drop some features, neither of which Sony was ready to do. At that point it was already too late: the hype was built.
So instead of trying to do damage control Sony just pushed Murray in the focus, probably hoping he and his company would take the fall. Honestly it feels hard to blame him for what happened. He, at the time, was just an incredibly ambitious indie dev with no idea on how to manage expectations.
I feel like with Sony as your publisher, you don’t need enemies.