Hello Games made a lot of promises leading up to the release of No Man’s Sky. When the game launched in August, players were already in contention with the developers regarding some of the advertising for the game and what it promised. Now, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is investigating into the case of No Man’s Sky and whether its advertisements do misrepresent the game. Investigations are currently underway.
The ASA are a watchdog group that investigates advertisements and can have them permanently revoked if they are found to be in breack of their code of conduct. The Steam page for No Man’s Sky is what is specifically being investigated, though any ruling would be applied to any other form of advertising for the game. This includes YouTube videos and even Sony-related advertising such as the listing itself on the PlayStation Store.
Eurogamer talked to “AzzerUK” who issued the formal complaint to the ASA, and he discussed why the ASA was brought in on this matter. “I figured that if we want Steam store pages for games to start falling in-line and stop misleading consumers, then it would take consumers to point these problems out to the ASA, rather than all sit around on Reddit complaining to each other but assuming that it’ll all get sorted by itself eventually…” stated AzzerUK to Eurogamer.
Azzer has a solid point which is that a lot of Steam store pages don’t end up being fixed to accurately represent a game if found to misrepresent the title. Sometimes a game will get pulled from the service, but its often for a massive amount of complaints, if it happens at all. While I haven’t had any real issues with No Man’s Sky, if players believe there to be misrepresentation than it is only right to have someone investigate it. With Sean Murray’s silence on everything since the game’s launch, the ASA seems to be the only organization reacting to the complaints aimed at the popular space exploration title.
You can find a full list of details on what complaints have been issued here. Stay tuned to BagoGames for more updates on this story as it unfolds, and let us know in the comments below what you think of the whole issue.