No Man’s Sky was the most hyped game of the year, and also the most disappointing. The number of empty promises that went into pre-release marketing is practically uncountable (although some have tried).
Even the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, thought the PR strategy was flawed.
“I understand some of the criticisms especially Sean Murray is getting, because he sounded like he was promising more features in the game from day one,” Yoshida told Eurogamer. “It wasn’t a great PR strategy, because he didn’t have a PR person helping him, and in the end he is an indie developer.”
Although Sony released the game, much of No Man’s Sky’s development was done independently by Sean Murray’s Hello Games. During the development Murray gave a number of interviews promising an amazing, innovative game, but what was finally released was nowhere close.
But Sean Murray did share the stage with Sony at E3, so they are certainly still at fault for letting the hype run amok.