No Man's Sky is "unfinished and repetitive" because "math can’t always create meaning” says Geoff Keighley
Geoff Keighley addresses everything wrong with No Man's Sky.
After news of the Advertising Standards Authority investigation into false advertising surrounding the title, Geoff Keighley had some interesting things to say on No Man's Sky during the premiere of his new show, Live with YouTube Gaming, last night.
"I honestly resisted saying anything about this game for the better part of the last year because I've been internally conflicted about what I saw happening, and I've played a role in this," he begins, referencing the "broken promises" that have been a recurring complaint about the game.
"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."
Talking about the initial announcement of the game on Spike VGX in 2013, Keighley reflects on seeing the Hello Games team at the after party. "I felt like these guys had no idea where they were going to go but they had this huge amount of momentum."
He goes on to liken Sean Murray to Peter Molyneux, being swept up in the concept and vision of a game and taking us all along for the ride, but ultimately falling short of those ideas.
"The fact that a small 15 person team built and shipped a game like No Man's Sky is a stunning achievement...but on the other hand I have to think about the players who wanted to believe in something more than what was in the box when the game shipped in August.
"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."
Keighley says that leading up to launch he disagreed with the idea of charging $60 for a retail release, saying that they should have put it out as an early access game instead, gathering feedback from players to build the team and community over time.
"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 wraps up by sharing that he's reconnected with Murray, who said the team is currently working on updates and he's open to appearing on the show later in October to talk more about what happened.