Hello Games Found To Have Done No Wrongdoing In Marketing No Man’s Sky By UK’s ASA

A couple of months ago, we wrote about an investigation that was taking place against Hello Games, creator of No Man’s Sky. This investigation, led by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, spawned as the result of numerous customer complaints – and if you’ve been reading the Web since the game dropped this past August, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why.

Well… after a couple of months’ worth of investigation, the ASA has found Hello Games… not guilty.

We find out today that the ASA received a total of 23 complaints, so it’s not as though the agency received an overwhelming number of them. Originally, many could have easily assumed that the total number who complained was much, much greater, because who would think such a small number could cause an investigation to hit the news?

The bottom line is that the ASA says the game’s marketing didn’t “exaggerate… the experience of the game”. It goes on to say, “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.”

Basically, Hello Games behaved like any other game developer or publisher: it marketed the game highlighting its best assets.

This decision comes hot on the heels of Hello Games finally breaking cover and releasing the 1.1 Foundation update. “Foundation” is an apt name, as it quite literally lays the foundation for future updates. That means that this particular patch isn’t that “major”, but it’s significant enough, and should lead us into more substantial updates down-the-road. I doubt that excuses Hello Games’ infamous silence, but at least those who shelled out their hard-earned cash for the game have more updates to look forward to.