GOG Offering No Man's Sky Refunds

[DooKey]

It seems like Hello Games keeps stepping on their talleywacker every time they say their game is going to have a certain feature and they did it this time by promising multi-player and not delivering. GOG wants to do what's right and they are offering a refund in store cash for the latest rounds of purchases until Sunday, July 29, 10:00 PM UTC. Go over to their forums and you can see what they have to say about the situation. Thanks cageymaru.

Although Hello Games chose not to offer refunds over missing game content to our users and instead promised to bring the missing multiplayer content later this year, we understand that some of you might not be willing to wait. For this reason, entirely at GOG's own cost, we’re offering an extended refund policy for all owners of No Man’s Sky.

 

[BloodyIron]

This is effectively an affordable advertising campaign for gog. They're paying out of pocket but they will get so much publicity from this. It will be a net win.

Not a bad idea, honestly

 

[Armenius]

Unfortunately this is a common occurrence with game realeases on GOG. Missing out on patches, updates, and content, that is. Not the refunds. I love the idea of DRM-free games, but sadly developers and publishers still don't. The only reason some games are even getting a GOG release in the first place is so they can get a piece of initial buyers suckered by the apparent good-faith move.

 

[Joust]

I bought it, not from GOG, and I have enjoyed it so far. Maybe expectations were rather high. It is, in many ways, what I hoped Elite Dangerous would have been.

 

[Aireoth]

I bought it, not from GOG, and I have enjoyed it so far. Maybe expectations were rather high. It is, in many ways, what I hoped Elite Dangerous would have been.

The flight model is just so basic though (w to accelerate, point with mouse, auto landing) ED is and always will be the better sim.

 

[Inacurate]

This is effectively an affordable advertising campaign for gog. They're paying out of pocket but they will get so much publicity from this. It will be a net win.

Actually, it's a face saving move by GOG.
I don't know all the particulars exactly, but...

GOG purchases, are not eligible for real-time game updates, the developer pushes a specific game version for GOG to sell, that is packaged without DRM.

So the NMS Next update that was just released, is not available for GOG users until Hello Games makes a new version specifically for the GOG platform.

Until then, NMS players who purchased from GOG, are hearing about all these great things, yet unable to experience them until Hello Games pushes out that GOG update 'later this year.'

 

[ryno9100]

The flight model is just so basic though (w to accelerate, point with mouse, auto landing) ED is and always will be the better sim.

That kind of depends on what you want. I purchased Elite Dangerous to play with friends. I like the game, don't get me wrong, but it's not a game I can really play solo. Sure, Space is big, and the game is good at making you feel that. I feel like the exploration aspect is bland, though. Jump into a star system, see the same sun you saw at your last 6 jumps, make sure you have enough fuel, stop at a station (which takes between 2 and 10 minutes to do per galaxy, which is tedious), browse the mission boards, then start the process over.

None of that is to say the game is bad. The game is very good. The flight controls are incredibly accurate and well done, the dog fighting is intense and well realized. Everything about how your ship operates, from min/maxing power consumption vs utility and firepower, to flying the ship through close quarters and landing is great. All of that is objective. Personally? I don't care for it. I'd prefer to land on a planet, not having a clue what I'm going to run in to. Exploring caves, exploring oceans, etc. In ED, once you discover one sun, you've discovered all of them. Once you see one style of base station, you've seen them all. There's no real variety, at least not that I've discovered in my 15 hours of play.

TL;DR - Some of us would rather have simple controls and more varied areas, while others would prefer a better flight model, while sacrificing the exploration aspect.

 

[Joust]

That kind of depends on what you want. I purchased Elite Dangerous to play with friends. I like the game, don't get me wrong, but it's not a game I can really play solo. Sure, Space is big, and the game is good at making you feel that. I feel like the exploration aspect is bland, though. Jump into a star system, see the same sun you saw at your last 6 jumps, make sure you have enough fuel, stop at a station (which takes between 2 and 10 minutes to do per galaxy, which is tedious), browse the mission boards, then start the process over.

None of that is to say the game is bad. The game is very good. The flight controls are incredibly accurate and well done, the dog fighting is intense and well realized. Everything about how your ship operates, from min/maxing power consumption vs utility and firepower, to flying the ship through close quarters and landing is great. All of that is objective. Personally? I don't care for it. I'd prefer to land on a planet, not having a clue what I'm going to run in to. Exploring caves, exploring oceans, etc. In ED, once you discover one sun, you've discovered all of them. Once you see one style of base station, you've seen them all. There's no real variety, at least not that I've discovered in my 15 hours of play.

TL;DR - Some of us would rather have simple controls and more varied areas, while others would prefer a better flight model, while sacrificing the exploration aspect.

I think it doesn't have to be either/or; if NMS incorporated the same flight physics as ED, I'd say that is 90% of the value to be had there.

 

[Parja]

This is effectively an affordable advertising campaign for gog. They're paying out of pocket but they will get so much publicity from this. It will be a net win.

Not a bad idea, honestly

Yeah, great advertising campaign...
"Hey, our service isn't all that great, but since we really shit the bed this time, we'll give you a refund!"

 

[Dr. Righteous]

Good 'ole GOG.
I purchased No Mans Sky on a steam sale and put in for a refund a few hour later. Never done that before on a game.
I had all kind of graphics issue; blank textures and very choppy frame rates. I started reading some of the comments and found it really seems the games does not support AMD video cards. -Huh? Whaa??'-- yep. Nice of Hello Games to keep that tid bit a secret.

 

[ryno9100]

I think it doesn't have to be either/or; if NMS incorporated the same flight physics as ED, I'd say that is 90% of the value to be had there.

That's just it. I don't WANT to have to manually land my ship every time I make it to a planet, or spend those 5 minutes gliding from the sun to the planet surface. I waste a module slot on my ships in ED specifically so I don't have to dock myself, because I find it tedious. I haven't played NMS itself (on the fence, leaning towards buying it now), but I've played many games with the "W to accelerate and steer my pointing the mouse" flight mechanics, and I find that simplicity to be much more enjoyable than the more robust systems of ED.

Again, it's all personal preference. Now is NMS gave us the option of "point and click" flight and ED flight, that would be awesome. ED could never do the point and click style flight, because one of it's defining traits is the realistic aspect of the flight systems.

 

[Aireoth]

I think it doesn't have to be either/or; if NMS incorporated the same flight physics as ED, I'd say that is 90% of the value to be had there.

This.

NMS is not a flight sim, it's a survival game with a twist in that you have a very basic flight model to allow you to traverse the biomes.

I am enjoying NMS next and huge props to them for sticking with it and fixing the game.

 

[zalazin]

What is this BS about GOG games not being updated? Funny I have GOG galaxy installed and I am always getting game updates and for the newest releases......

 

[Shmee]

I get why people would be mad, but this is just a case of a 16 person team prioritizing the biggest platforms first. From the rumors out there, the issue they are having is the player handling. It is difficult to make all that work without the built-in tools like those supplied by Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live. However, this team has stuck with the game this long, I am guessing they will figure it out and the GOG version will have co-op soon. They just should have said from the beginning that the co-op patch would be delayed on the GOG version, so that people didn't run out and buy it until it was ready.

 

[Calavaro]

Oh no! A shit developer screwing over their customers - again? Unpossible and inreasonable!

 

[Sparky]

I watched on Twitch last night NMS multiplayer. A group of 4 with 1 in space fighting pirates.

 

[kju1]

People are still buying this steaming pile of shit?

 

[doublejack]

People are still buying this steaming pile of shit?

Apparently, at least the console and Steam versions are less shitty than the original release, but the GOG version hasn't receives the same love.

I'm as puzzled as you are, though. No way in hell I'm touching any game from this dev, and at this point I wouldn't play a free copy of No Man's Sky.

 

[ryno9100]

Oh no! A shit developer screwing over their customers - again? Unpossible and inreasonable!

People are still buying this steaming pile of shit?

Just because they're bad at marketing and PR doesn't make them bad devs. I agree everything they did prior to the launch of this game was stupid. However, name me some other devs that would launch this game, see the backlash, and instead of giving up, continue developing the game and make it in to what people wanted in the first place.

I don't own the game, and have no real ties to HG in any way, but I hate seeing this mob mentality hatred towards these guys. Yes, their PR sucked. They had a game dev who was obviously not a social butterfly doing their PR because they didn't have a PR department. However, if you look past that mob mentality, you see a small developer team working on a game they obviously care about. I'm tempted to buy the game just to support HG, as their actions have spoken louder than their words 2 years ago.

 

[Armenius]

Just because they're bad at marketing and PR doesn't make them bad devs. I agree everything they did prior to the launch of this game was stupid. However, name me some other devs that would launch this game, see the backlash, and instead of giving up, continue developing the game and make it in to what people wanted in the first place.

I don't own the game, and have no real ties to HG in any way, but I hate seeing this mob mentality hatred towards these guys. Yes, their PR sucked. They had a game dev who was obviously not a social butterfly doing their PR because they didn't have a PR department. However, if you look past that mob mentality, you see a small developer team working on a game they obviously care about. I'm tempted to buy the game just to support HG, as their actions have spoken louder than their words 2 years ago.

A lot of it also had to do with Sony putting words into their mouths, and Sean Murray had to keep up with the bit.

 

[Kinsaras]

A lot of it also had to do with Sony putting words into their mouths, and Sean Murray had to keep up with the bit.

Right.

Developers aren't some mustache twirling villain. If he didn't care he wouldn't be putting so much work into it. And it's a lot of work. It's almost a completely different game now.

 

[kju1]

Just because they're bad at marketing and PR doesn't make them bad devs. I agree everything they did prior to the launch of this game was stupid. However, name me some other devs that would launch this game, see the backlash, and instead of giving up, continue developing the game and make it in to what people wanted in the first place.

I don't own the game, and have no real ties to HG in any way, but I hate seeing this mob mentality hatred towards these guys. Yes, their PR sucked. They had a game dev who was obviously not a social butterfly doing their PR because they didn't have a PR department. However, if you look past that mob mentality, you see a small developer team working on a game they obviously care about. I'm tempted to buy the game just to support HG, as their actions have spoken louder than their words 2 years ago.

A lot of it also had to do with Sony putting words into their mouths, and Sean Murray had to keep up with the bit.

Bad marketing? They outright lied. Sony's words or not they failed.

I actually own the game. Didnt get a refund. It was utter shit. I think having given them my money gives me more of a right to bitch about how bad the game was than someone who didnt buy it.

Also I didnt say they were bad devs, I said their product was shit.

 

[Shmee]

Bad marketing? They outright lied. Sony's words or not they failed.

I actually own the game. Didnt get a refund. It was utter shit. I think having given them my money gives me more of a right to bitch about how bad the game was than someone who didnt buy it.

Also I didnt say they were bad devs, I said their product was shit.

Did you pre-order or something? And if you didn't like it why didn't you get a refund? I stopped pre-ordering games years ago, and it has been great for my blood pressure. Now I can pick up the game cheap and get to play the game that was promised.

 

[BloodyIron]

Dang, I did not realize that's how it was! That's really lame!

Actually, it's a face saving move by GOG.
I don't know all the particulars exactly, but...

GOG purchases, are not eligible for real-time game updates, the developer pushes a specific game version for GOG to sell, that is packaged without DRM.

So the NMS Next update that was just released, is not available for GOG users until Hello Games makes a new version specifically for the GOG platform.

Until then, NMS players who purchased from GOG, are hearing about all these great things, yet unable to experience them until Hello Games pushes out that GOG update 'later this year.'

 

[BloodyIron]

I think I actually misunderstood what was going on here. Someone pointed out some more info I was previously unaware of before, namely the NMS they sell does not get updates, WUT?!

Yeah, great advertising campaign...
"Hey, our service isn't all that great, but since we really shit the bed this time, we'll give you a refund!"

 

[TheCommander]

I think I actually misunderstood what was going on here. Someone pointed out some more info I was previously unaware of before, namely the NMS they sell does not get updates, WUT?!

I bought the steam version so I was surprised to hear that about GOG. It must be rarity though. From the many games I have bought on GOG, patches released about as quickly as their steam versions.

 

[SCSI-Terminator]

From my understanding, and I cannot verify its accuracy, but I believe it to be true.

The steam version of NMS uses some steam libraries and API's to help handle the networking. GoG's Galaxy client has no such equivalent library, which would mean Hello Games would haft to write their own which takes time. Rather than delay the NEXT update for everyone, they decided to go ahead and proceed with the launch, knowing that the GoG version would be lacking multiplayer for the time being.

That being said. Hello Games is a small studio of less than 20 people, and while Sean Murray may be director now, his background is in computer science and programming, and with such a small team, I doubt he was out of the loop regarding the technical challenges being faced in getting networking and multiplayer support working on the GoG version. The fact that he failed to communicate any of this to the public prior to the launch of the NEXT update just continues to solidify my belief that Sean Murray is still a lying scumbag, who makes promises he knows full well his studio can't keep.

Hello Games ought to be handing out free steam keys to anybody that bought the GoG version that wants multiplayer, and/or offering full refunds themselves.

 

[Meeho]

Just because they're bad at marketing and PR doesn't make them bad devs. I agree everything they did prior to the launch of this game was stupid. However, name me some other devs that would launch this game, see the backlash, and instead of giving up, continue developing the game and make it in to what people wanted in the first place.

I don't own the game, and have no real ties to HG in any way, but I hate seeing this mob mentality hatred towards these guys. Yes, their PR sucked. They had a game dev who was obviously not a social butterfly doing their PR because they didn't have a PR department. However, if you look past that mob mentality, you see a small developer team working on a game they obviously care about. I'm tempted to buy the game just to support HG, as their actions have spoken louder than their words 2 years ago.

Oh, please. If you went to a restaurant whose owner put fake three Michelin stars on the front, and got served literal dog shit on a plate which got replaced in time by a normal meal, you wouldn't be praising the owner for sticking to it and dismissing the fake three stars as just bad PR.

 

[ryno9100]

Apparently, at least the console and Steam versions are less shitty than the original release, but the GOG version hasn't receives the same love.

I'm as puzzled as you are, though. No way in hell I'm touching any game from this dev, and at this point I wouldn't play a free copy of No Man's Sky.

Oh, please. If you went to a restaurant whose owner put fake three Michelin stars on the front, and got served literal dog shit on a plate which got replaced in time by a normal meal, you wouldn't be praising the owner for sticking to it and dismissing the fake three stars as just bad PR.

Food and game development are just a little bit different... I understand your point, but you made a terrible analogy.

As I've said. I agree that what they did 2 years ago was dumb. However, just because a restaurant serves me bad food once doesn't mean I'll never give them another chance. I'll usually wait a year or so, let management and staff change, then try them again. If they still serve me awful food, I'll call it quits. EA has served me awful "food" for 3 or 4 years now, and I don't buy their games anymore. Hello Games served us a bad product once, and now they're serving us a good one (bought the game last night and played it for several hours). I try not to look at the world as cut and dry as "This guy/restaurant/game dev/mechanic/etc. did me wrong once, so I'll never give him another chance."

My arguments are less for Hello Games' sake, and more for not having a mob mentality and giving people second chances. Some game devs deserve them. Personally, I think HG is one of those.

 

[Meeho]

We aren't talking about small marketing embellishments here. These were outright lies and deceits about game's fundamentals. I don't see why they would deserve another chance. There is a difference between serving you subpar food by mistake and deliberately serving you frozen microwave lasagna while marketing and charging for the best home made organic gourmand lasagna made on the bosom of virgins.

 

[DPI]

What is this BS about GOG games not being updated? Funny I have GOG galaxy installed and I am always getting game updates and for the newest releases......

Galaxy is DRM. So effectively it's just a lesser version of Steam. That's not the same as people wanting a DRM free offline installer when they buy the GOG version.

 

[Meeho]

Galaxy is DRM. So effectively it's just a lesser version of Steam. That's not the same as people wanting a DRM free offline installer when they buy the GOG version.

How so? I have offline installers, patches and extras for all my GOG games.

 

[DPI]

How so? I have offline installers, patches and extras for all my GOG games.

You're being obtuse since installing an offline, DRM-free installer is not Galaxy's default behavior. And your game won't be automatically updated like a Steam game when you use Galaxy to download the offline installer.

The post I replied to was trying to conflate something (updates) as applying to both Galaxy and GoG, when it actually only exists in the galaxy-integrated (DRM) version of a game, not the GoG offline installed version. And now this minutiae is getting boring.

 

[Meeho]

You often find being corrected as obtuse? So, you've confirmed that Galaxy is not in fact a form of DRM and has valuable features Steam doesn't offer. Thank you. Such boring minutiae, though, I know.

Also, shitty practices from a single, proven failure of a developer do not reflect on the GOG service as a whole.

 

[Youn]

As always, I'm way more annoyed with people who blindly buy a game without waiting for reviews... can't people learn not to trust pre-release marketing speak, as it's basically a crap-shoot at best, buying the game then only feeds that type of behavior

 

[Derangel]

Food and game development are just a little bit different... I understand your point, but you made a terrible analogy.

As I've said. I agree that what they did 2 years ago was dumb. However, just because a restaurant serves me bad food once doesn't mean I'll never give them another chance. I'll usually wait a year or so, let management and staff change, then try them again. If they still serve me awful food, I'll call it quits. EA has served me awful "food" for 3 or 4 years now, and I don't buy their games anymore. Hello Games served us a bad product once, and now they're serving us a good one (bought the game last night and played it for several hours). I try not to look at the world as cut and dry as "This guy/restaurant/game dev/mechanic/etc. did me wrong once, so I'll never give him another chance."

My arguments are less for Hello Games' sake, and more for not having a mob mentality and giving people second chances. Some game devs deserve them. Personally, I think HG is one of those.

Someone should have to earn a second chance. Hello Games has not shown a single ounce of remorse or willingness to change. In the two YEARS since launch they have never offered a single apology. The only "apology" (where they blamed customers for believing their bullshit) was claimed to have been the result of being hacked. With the GOG situation they've shown that they have not learned anything nor do they care about continuing to lie to people. As far as I can tell, they still have not delivered on all the promises they made before the game launched.

 

[doublejack]

Food and game development are just a little bit different... I understand your point, but you made a terrible analogy.

As I've said. I agree that what they did 2 years ago was dumb. However, just because a restaurant serves me bad food once doesn't mean I'll never give them another chance. I'll usually wait a year or so, let management and staff change, then try them again. If they still serve me awful food, I'll call it quits. EA has served me awful "food" for 3 or 4 years now, and I don't buy their games anymore. Hello Games served us a bad product once, and now they're serving us a good one (bought the game last night and played it for several hours). I try not to look at the world as cut and dry as "This guy/restaurant/game dev/mechanic/etc. did me wrong once, so I'll never give him another chance."

My arguments are less for Hello Games' sake, and more for not having a mob mentality and giving people second chances. Some game devs deserve them. Personally, I think HG is one of those.

One of my problems with Hello Games is the degree to which they failed when No Man's Sky was released. Continuing with the food analogy, HG served obviously raw meat and was slapped with health code violations when NMS was released (extended refund window). This was not simply a case of eating out and having a sub-par meal. It was an epic disaster. I can tell you with certainty, when I have a dining experience that bad there are no second chances.

This isn't mob mentality, this is about holding developers accountable for their products. EA and WB have taken plenty of flak for greedy microtransactions and loot boxes. There's no reason to give HG a pass for releasing an internal alpha testing quality game to consumers.

As far as NMS being a good game now, 2 years later, if you feel that way it is totally your prerogative. I continue to see something I have no interest in playing. NMS is a walking simulator with built in timesink blasting everything in sight with a ray gun to harvest resources and craft things. Where's the fun???? Exploration is too hampered by resource constraints, and even then there's not anything to truly see - the entire universe is the result of procedural generation. NMS is tedious, monotonous and not something I'll ever play.