It’s fair to say that No Man’s Sky is probably the most anticipated game of 2016 – and one lucky fan managed to get his hands on the game early.
A chap going by the online alias of Daymeeuhn picked up a PS4 copy of the open universe survival game for a very hefty sum – according to a post on Reddit, he parted with $1250 so that he could check the game out early.
As you probably would have expected, once Daymeeuhn got hold of the game, he began sharing videos of his experience online.
Obviously this isn’t something that either Sony or developer Hello Games would have wanted for a game that has been carefully shrouded in mystery for such a long time now.
Sony eventually managed to get the gameplay videos taken down from DailyMotion and YouTube, while Hello Games owner Sean Murray implored fans over Twitter to avoid any spoilers.
We’ve spent years filling No Man’s Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself :(
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) July 29, 2016
To be fair, No Man’s Sky is all about setting off and discovering as many of those 18 quintillion planets as you possibly can – why would you want to watch someone else do that before you experience it for yourself?
Upon seeing Murray’s disappointment, Daymeeuhn apparently saw the error of his ways and posted an update to Reddit to announce that he wouldn’t be posting any more videos.
He told Kotaku:
I expected Sean to tweet negatively about it because, let’s face it, it’s his job to… But I’ll admit, after watching so many of his interviews and knowing how cool of a guy he seems, it did make me feel a bit guilty. It wasn’t the sole reason for my decision, but it was certainly a factor.
With that said, Daymeeuhn will still be posting a few first impressions pieces, and is happy to answer any questions people might have about the game – but he’ll be doing it in a more respectful way.
He explained on Reddit:
I will do a text-only post with first impressions once I’m much further in, and yes I will Spoiler tag it and answer ANY questions people want to ask, but there will be no screenshots or videos. Text only from here on out, my friends. It’s a compromise respectful to the boundaries in place, and I’m just going to accept it.
No Man’s Sky is dangerously close to release now, with a PS4 release on August 9 in North America, and August 10 in Europe, with a worldwide PC release on August 12.
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.