Developer Hello Games recently confirmed that their highly anticipated space exploration game No Man’s Sky has been delayed, and some fans don’t seem to have taken this news well at all.
Following rumours that the title had been pushed back from June to August, the team soon confirmed the bad news themselves.
It’s disappointing that we have to wait a little longer, for sure – but does it really warrant threats towards the people who are trying to make the game?
Designer Sean Murray shared on Twitter that he’s faced death threats in response to the delay. To his credit, he’s managed to make light of a dark situation with a little reference humour.
I have received loads of death threats this week, but don't worry, Hello Games now looks like the house from Home Alone #pillowfort
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) May 28, 2016
To be honest, if you’re that bothered that you have to wait a little longer for a game to come out that you’re gonna make death threats, I can’t help but feel killing the people who work on the game would only cause further delays.
But it gets weirder. Not only have Hello Games been facing the heat, but Kotaku’s Jason Schreier (who broke the news of the delay) has received some pretty chilling messages. He shared one himself through Twitter.
What it's like to write about video games on the internet: pic.twitter.com/a4yRcGMbsA
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 27, 2016
Someone’s clearly never heard the expression “don’t shoot the messenger”. It’s a pretty big leap in logic to assume that Schreier had anything to do with the delay at all.
Here’s what Murray had to say when he confirmed the delay (via PlayStation blog):
I have had to make the tough choice to delay the game for a few weeks to allow us to deliver something special. As we approached our final deadlines, we realized that some key moments needed extra polish to bring them up to our standards.
No Man’s Sky is set to be a massive game, with over 18 quintillion planets to explore. Let’s give ’em the time they need to really get it right.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.