Hello Games has had a rough time ever since their premier game, No Man’s Sky, was released. There were rampant claims and outrage that the game was severely mis-represented and thus advertised in a very false manner. Though you may still be miffed by the misleading steam page, they’ve been cleared by the UK Advertising Standards Authority of any wrong-doing.
Hello Games didn’t use false advertising
That UK authority took two months to carefully examine the advertising and marketing practices in order to ascertain if there was any wrongdoing on the part of Hello Games. The issue was that a large majority of gamers did not feel that screenshots, videos or even descriptions of the game during its development accurately represented the final product. No Man’s Sky wasn’t what was advertised. It was missing quite a lot.
The investigating agency was aware of distinct differences in trailers, that they perhaps were showing a more complex game with elements that were not always immediately accessible to the player, they still were not necessarily misleading. The game is vast enough that your experiences will vastly differ. And there’s no guarantee that you’ll run into anything as depicted in the trailers. Despite them still being in the game.
In particular, these investigators noted some marked differences in animal behavior where in in some clips they showed moving trees and massive creatures. But they ultimately decided this was a “fleeting and incidental scene” and also that this was “not misleading.”
It was ruled that Hello Games was trying to show their game in the absolute best light possible. All of the materials were taken from actual in-game elements. The final decision said that “the overall impression of the ad was consistent with gameplay and the footage provided, both in terms of that captured by Hello Games and by third parties, and that it did not exaggerate the expected player experience of the game.
This ruling comes just after Hello Games has released a rather large Foundation Update that includes several improvements to the overall gameplay. This update, and perhaps this final ruling, may win back the trust of the gaming public, though it’s also likely that it will further enrage some as it isn’t the outcome that was wanted.