No Man's Sky

Fulcrum29 said:
Reading many articles on why Sony and Steam initiated the returns scheme was due to broken game mechanics, leaving players with broken save games and game-breaking experiences. You have to prove that to Sony, Steam and the others which are accepting the returns.
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Only Sony, afaik, because the PS4 version suffers lock-ups and crashes. Steam and Amazon were giving refunds for other reasons, including false advertisement.
 
Zoopy said:
Only Sony, afaik, because the PS4 version suffers lock-ups and crashes. Steam and Amazon were giving refunds for other reasons, including false advertisement.
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I have been down that road now and Steam is refusing refunds and I will report them to the National Consumer Tribunal. Since I gifted the game from a secondary steam account I don't have an issue to request a chargeback as they will just ban my account and my credit card and will remove the game from my son's library. Lesson learned here is to never pay with credit card, but rather use PayPal as the refund policy with PayPal is much better. The chargeback will only be 200 bucks as the remainder was paid in credit from the steam wallet.

I was not aware that Partserve is the local Sony/PSN representative and although they seem to pass queries on to Sony EU, I would have contacted them first 3 weeks ago. Should Sony SA/EU fail to provide a refund, I will also report them to DTI / NCT - the complaint will cover a number of areas such as refusal of refund, intimidation, wrongful charges on credit card.

What really is fundamentally wrong is that most countries have consumer legislation (such as CPA), but Sony/Steam come up with all sorts of excuses (including the one from SCEE which I have in writing where the agent referred to "South African laws do not apply to SCEE").

You will find that people in the US will file a class-action against HelloGames and people in various countries are already busy with lodging complaints against Steam/Sony. What most people don't get is that consumers do have the right for a refund if the product/service was misrepresented (it is irrelevant if it was intentional or not). If you pre-order a car, take delivery and it stops every 15 minutes would you accept that "all sales are final"? Why should digital sales be treated differently - it's not like you have consumed something and lowered the products value (like ordering a meal in a restaurant, eating all of it and then requesting not to pay because it was not good). In the worst case Steam/Sony should consider pro-rated refunds for usage. The argument of "you played XX hours" is unfair consumer behavior as the user could very well research on the web how to resolve problems with the game and the game-timer continues to tick...
 
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/09/development-update/

DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Hello,

Over the last few weeks since No Man’s Sky released we’ve been inundated with feedback and discussion about No Man’s Sky.

No matter what feedback you gave us, you have been heard and we are listening carefully. Thank you.

Here’s what we’ve been busy with over the 2-3 weeks since release:

• A community/support management team has been brought on board.
• Support issues raised are been categorised by that team, and we are fixing them in order of priority.
• We’ve released 4 patches for PC and 4 patches for PS4.
• We’ve written up patch notes for all those patches. You can find them here.

What matters now, as always, is what we do rather than what we say. We’re developers, and our focus is first on resolving any issues people have with the game as it is, then on future free updates which will improve, expand and build on the No Man’s Sky universe.

This is a labour of love for us, and it’s just the beginning.

If you have suggestions please mail ********@**********.**.**

Thank you,

Hello Games
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MagicDude4Eva said:
I have been down that road now and Steam is refusing refunds and I will report them to the National Consumer Tribunal. Since I gifted the game from a secondary steam account I don't have an issue to request a chargeback as they will just ban my account and my credit card and will remove the game from my son's library. Lesson learned here is to never pay with credit card, but rather use PayPal as the refund policy with PayPal is much better. The chargeback will only be 200 bucks as the remainder was paid in credit from the steam wallet.

I was not aware that Partserve is the local Sony/PSN representative and although they seem to pass queries on to Sony EU, I would have contacted them first 3 weeks ago. Should Sony SA/EU fail to provide a refund, I will also report them to DTI / NCT - the complaint will cover a number of areas such as refusal of refund, intimidation, wrongful charges on credit card.

What really is fundamentally wrong is that most countries have consumer legislation (such as CPA), but Sony/Steam come up with all sorts of excuses (including the one from SCEE which I have in writing where the agent referred to "South African laws do not apply to SCEE").

You will find that people in the US will file a class-action against HelloGames and people in various countries are already busy with lodging complaints against Steam/Sony. What most people don't get is that consumers do have the right for a refund if the product/service was misrepresented (it is irrelevant if it was intentional or not). If you pre-order a car, take delivery and it stops every 15 minutes would you accept that "all sales are final"? Why should digital sales be treated differently - it's not like you have consumed something and lowered the products value (like ordering a meal in a restaurant, eating all of it and then requesting not to pay because it was not good). In the worst case Steam/Sony should consider pro-rated refunds for usage. The argument of "you played XX hours" is unfair consumer behavior as the user could very well research on the web how to resolve problems with the game and the game-timer continues to tick...
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How many hours did you play before deciding on a refund?
 
biometrics said:
How many hours did you play before deciding on a refund?
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On Steam my kid got the game on Friday at 7pm and then spend 3hours 17min resolving frame-rate issues and crashes (let's not forget that his kit runs Overwatch and other games without any issue). Most of his time spent was adjusting settings and restarting the game. The refund request was made on 13th August in the morning. Had I known that Steam automatically rejects refunds over the 2 hour play-limit and that one can issue a ticket, then I would have requested a refund after the 1st hour.

On the PS4 I got the game on the Wednesday and up to Friday played about 3-4 hours. When I say "play" it meant: Start the game, spawn on planet, fly around, crash. PS4 goes into a weird boot-cycle (I have never seen this before) and after 2 min is back up. Rinse repeat with consistency. So on Wednesday I gave up after 3-4 attempts. Tried the same on Thursday. When I saw what happened on Steam/PC I decided that the game is poor overall and requested a PSN refund on Saturday.

I have now sent a letter to Sean Murray as well. I am not quite sure how I feel about some people requesting refunds after 30-40 hours of game-play. I think one would need to think about the cases individually as there are certainly users who should not get refunds based on usage. But then again, the company set out high expectations and promises during demos which did not materialise when they launched. Perhaps the media/Sony are also guilty for running up the hype too. Still going to pursue the whole fiasco with DTI/NCT as I am curios to see how those bodies react to it (last year in August also everybody laughed and dropped insulting PMs at me when I said I am going to take Afrihost to ISPA :whistle: )
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
On Steam my kid got the game on Friday at 7pm and then spend 3hours 17min resolving frame-rate issues and crashes (let's not forget that his kit runs Overwatch and other games without any issue). Most of his time spent was adjusting settings and restarting the game. The refund request was made on 13th August in the morning. Had I known that Steam automatically rejects refunds over the 2 hour play-limit and that one can issue a ticket, then I would have requested a refund after the 1st hour.

On the PS4 I got the game on the Wednesday and up to Friday played about 3-4 hours. When I say "play" it meant: Start the game, spawn on planet, fly around, crash. PS4 goes into a weird boot-cycle (I have never seen this before) and after 2 min is back up. Rinse repeat with consistency. So on Wednesday I gave up after 3-4 attempts. Tried the same on Thursday. When I saw what happened on Steam/PC I decided that the game is poor overall and requested a PSN refund on Saturday.

I have now sent a letter to Sean Murray as well. I am not quite sure how I feel about some people requesting refunds after 30-40 hours of game-play. I think one would need to think about the cases individually as there are certainly users who should not get refunds based on usage. But then again, the company set out high expectations and promises during demos which did not materialise when they launched. Perhaps the media/Sony are also guilty for running up the hype too. Still going to pursue the whole fiasco with DTI/NCT as I am curios to see how those bodies react to it (last year in August also everybody laughed and dropped insulting PMs at me when I said I am going to take Afrihost to ISPA :whistle: )
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I think you are totally entitled to expect a refund. The guys that played for 20+ hours, I don't think should get a refund.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Start the game, spawn on planet, fly around, crash.
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You don't just get from starting the game fresh to flying around. You have to fix your ship first, which means you are engaging in a fundamental part of the game.

If the game refused to work or was incredibly buggy, you would have liable cause for a refund. However Hello games have been pretty good about fixing the bugs, so it would be a stretch to argue that side of it.
Which means that now you would have to go down the route of not being happy with the game mechanics because of X. I don't think that would pass IMO.
 
konfab said:
You don't just get from starting the game fresh to flying around. You have to fix your ship first, which means you are engaging in a fundamental part of the game.

If the game refused to work or was incredibly buggy, you would have liable cause for a refund. However Hello games have been pretty good about fixing the bugs, so it would be a stretch to argue that side of it.
Which means that now you would have to go down the route of not being happy with the game mechanics because of X. I don't think that would pass IMO.
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ic0g340d43kx.jpg
 
ASA launches investigation into NMS

The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed to Eurogamer that it has launched an investigation into No Man's Sky.

The ASA investigation revolves around the Steam store page for No Man's Sky.
The watchdog launched its investigation after receiving "several complaints" about No Man's Sky advertising, a representative told me.

The ASA has the power to have advertisements it believes are in breach of its code of conduct withdrawn, and prevent them from appearing again. If an advertiser refuses to comply with an ASA ruling, it can impose sanctions, such as asking internet search websites to remove a marketer's paid-for search ads.

The investigation is on-going, and so the ASA declined to comment further, but one of the complainants revealed details of its response in a post on Reddit.

The investigation revolves around No Man's Sky's Steam store page, which includes assets some believe misrepresent the controversial space game.

The ASA has contacted both Hello Games and Valve and asked them to respond to a raft of questions relating to No Man's Sky advertisements.

Complaints centre around screenshots and videos that feature more advanced animal behaviour, large-scale combat and ship-flying behaviour than ended up in the launch version of the game. Complainants also say screenshots misrepresent the graphical quality of the game.

Share this: Facebook1,602 Twitter Google+ Reddit934
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28/09/2016

The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed to Eurogamer that it has launched an investigation into No Man's Sky.

The ASA investigation revolves around the Steam store page for No Man's Sky.
The watchdog launched its investigation after receiving "several complaints" about No Man's Sky advertising, a representative told me.

The ASA has the power to have advertisements it believes are in breach of its code of conduct withdrawn, and prevent them from appearing again. If an advertiser refuses to comply with an ASA ruling, it can impose sanctions, such as asking internet search websites to remove a marketer's paid-for search ads.

The investigation is on-going, and so the ASA declined to comment further, but one of the complainants revealed details of its response in a post on Reddit.

The investigation revolves around No Man's Sky's Steam store page, which includes assets some believe misrepresent the controversial space game.

The ASA has contacted both Hello Games and Valve and asked them to respond to a raft of questions relating to No Man's Sky advertisements.

Complaints centre around screenshots and videos that feature more advanced animal behaviour, large-scale combat and ship-flying behaviour than ended up in the launch version of the game. Complainants also say screenshots misrepresent the graphical quality of the game.

A No Man's Sky screenshot currently advertising the game on its Steam store page.
There are also complaints around the Steam store page's reference to a lack of loading screens and factions that contest territory.

While the complaints target Steam, the ASA said any ruling would apply to other advertising for No Man's Sky, such as official YouTube videos and the game's listing on the PlayStation Store.

No Man's Sky and its chief developer Sean Murray have come under fire since the August launch of the hotly-anticipated game, with some players feeling it did not turn out as promised.

"AzzerUK", the Reddit user who issued a formal complaint to the ASA, told me he doesn't feel enraged at No Man's Sky, Hello Games or Steam, but felt the need to contact the watchdog "after seeing just how vastly different the trailers for No Man's Sky were from the actual released game".

AzzerUK did not request a refund for the game, "but I did feel personally misled", he said. "The marketing of the game was very different to the end game. The end game is a shallow screenshot generator, and in some ways it reminded me of Spore.

"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."

AzzerUK said he hopes that his complaint could spark Valve and other companies in control of video game storefronts "to start forcing publishers that use its platforms to show realistic, actual, genuine, non-pre-rendered or scripted gameplay trailers and footage, and screenshots actually taken in-game from real game code that is going to be what the consumer purchases".

AzzerUK's actions were met with a mixed response on Reddit, with some expressing anger, others concern that the ASA investigation could hold up Hello Games from improving No Man's Sky with updates. Some wondered why someone would go to the trouble of complaining about video game screenshots and videos in the first place.

"I feel most people on the Reddit thread wanted to see Hello Games 'punished' directly though, rather than share my more generalised view that the game's marketing needs to be brought down to earth a bit more," AzzerUK added.

Players discovered No Man's Sky's distinct lack of multiplayer, despite Murray's comments in interviews that the game would feature a mechanic in which two-players could see each other - however unlikely it is that they would meet.

In August I reported on disgruntled No Man's Sky players who tried - and failed - to get a refund from Sony.

Sony's stringent refund policy is in stark contrast to that of Valve, which sells the PC version of No Man's Sky on Steam. Steam gives players a no questions asked refund if the request is made within 14 days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours.

Interestingly, there's a note on No Man's Sky's Steam store page that stresses that the standard Steam refund policy applies to the game. "There are no special exemptions available," it reads.

At Tokyo Game Show this month, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, told Eurogamer he understood why some fans were critical of No Man's Sky - and blamed Hello Games' pre-release PR strategy for building up unrealistic expectations.

Sony told Eurogamer that Hello Games was the developer of the game and the publisher of the PlayStation 4 digital and PC versions. But Sony was the publisher and distributor of the Blu-ray disc version of the game.

In declining refunds, Sony has told No Man's Sky players that the game changed over the course of development, to expect patches to address glitches, and said the game will continue to evolve and benefit from new features over the coming months.

Eurogamer has contacted Hello Games, Valve and Sony for comment.
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kitty laugh.jpg
 
Zoopy said:
ASA launches investigation into NMS
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I have been busy with ASASA (the South African equivalent of the ASA in the UK) since middle of September. I have never really had much joy with ASA as they seem to be very quick to disregard complaints (especially when it comes to big companies like Sony or Naspers).

My two blog-posts about the issues with the game and Sony South Africa overcharging has created enough traffic in the last 2 months that I have earned enough money in Adsense to allow me to litigate locally :whistle:
 
Making good on a promise,

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/news/

FOUNDATION UPDATE INCOMING

Hello Games | November 25, 2016

Hello,

This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.

Detailed patch notes will follow, and release will be soon.

Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about here http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release.

In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something.

The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about.

Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.
This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.

Thank you,

Hello Games
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Pretty big update:

http://www.polygon.com/2016/11/27/1...ndation-update-patch-notes-ps4-pc-version-1-1

There are now three different game modes: Normal, which is the original gameplay experience; Creative, which promises an unlimited universe and big bases; and Survival, which ups the challenge and tests explorers’ endurance.
Players can now establish home bases, which are used for shelter, storage and alien technology research
Players can farm crops, including new plants and resources
Players can add save points anywhere they want
Messages can be left for other explorers at communications terminals
Freighters can be bought and manned by aliens for added storage — and overall storage capacity has been increased in inventory slots as well
A streamlined quick menu is available to make looking through inventory easier
The PS4 version has a photo mode, while the PC has several bug fixes and visual improvements
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[video=youtube;hI9PvjJJijY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9PvjJJijY[/video]
 
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