Following the release of No Man's Sky, creators, Hello Games, came under intense pressure. 23 players complained to the British Advertising Standards Authority saying the pre-release promotional material painting the wrong picture of the game's overall experience. Now, after months of investigation, the ASA has concluding that this wasn't the case.
The users in question claimed certain screenshots and videos issued to advertise the game showed features and fidelity that was ultimately absent from the finished product. Namely material listed on the game's Steam page. This material allegedly showed superior graphics and faster warp speeds.
But in the end, the ASA decided procedural generation and the overall specs of each individual player's machines justified the advertising material stating: "We understood that the screenshots and videos in the ad had been created using game footage, and acknowledged that in doing this the advertisers would aim to show the product in the best light,"
To ease any potential feelings of deception, there's a new No Man's Sky patch that has drastically improved the game's image lately.
While issuing a far more in-depth report on their website, the ASA determined that while certain screenshots did depict a graphically superior product, there wasn't a big enough difference to appear deceptive of the overall experience. Essentially boiling down to how each player would have a rapidly different experience thanks to procedural generation and overall system specs, they sided with Hello Games and closed their investigation.
Likely to annoy those who felt the game was missing something, the investigation wasn't completely without merit. Steam did change their entire screenshot system to avoid this fiasco in the future.
