DM21 Gaming just uploaded a very good video explaining the difficulty he is having convincing Xbox players to get No Man’s Sky NEXT. He isn’t asking for a trailer or even screenshots. I cut to the points he makes in the video of the basic logistical information Xbox players need to be able to make a decision whether or not to preorder No Man’s Sky.
Good luck with that…
There is one thing I really don’t get. Like, everybody agrees that preordering is problematic, and that you shouldn’t preorder because you don’t know what’s in the game.
But then people are asking for a date on which they can preorder, despite knowing the exact release date, and feel ignored when they can’t have one. Like, just wait for the game to come out. You know when it’s going to come out, bloody hell. You’ll have all the information then. All the reviews, the let’s plays, all the information you could possibly want. Why is it a problem if you can’t make an informed decision about a game before you can even play it? Like, why would you even want to decide before you can play it? There’s no point.
Preordering has no point in the digital age. Why don’t people get that already?
Why does a game need a community already waiting for it when it comes out? Why can the community not just assemble after it’s released? This whole problem is pure marketing speech nonsense.
Also, many people want a trailer for NEXT. And yet, we had tons of trailers before the No Man’s Sky launch, and tons of people cited and continue to cite them as something that “tricked” them into buying the game. So basically, HG learned their lesson that releasing trailers early is a bad idea.
Remember the days when you would pre order because you were worried the game store wouldn’t order enough copies of the game for everyone?
Now it’s just a marketing tool moreso than anything and has become so normalised it’s expected now. There’s a generation of gamers who grew up with pre order bonus content not realising in the before times, the long long ago, we used to unlock these extra skins and gold weapons as rewards for achieving something within the game.
Gonna stop before I go on a tangent on the state of the industry 
Lol, that is so true, I forgot that was what preordering used to be for. Now it’s just for preorder bonuses since they can’t run out of the digital version.
Well to be fair preordering IS relevant when talking about stuff like Collectors Editions and such…those do run out and are often never restocked. Aside from that preoprders also help people remember the games they REALLY want in a world where everything screams at you for attention 24/7. I do preorder about 3 to 5 games a year on average.
@Emily, @oldgods please take five minutes to watch what DM21 has to say there…literally just a couple of minutes to hear him out on what is an important issue.
Let’s please not forget those of us in rural areas who have really, really bad internet service. I avoid d/l’s as much as possible. I pre-order all of my games at Gamestop for 2 reasons. The sorry internet and the fact that some games would not even be sent to the nearby Gamestop because someone, someplace, probably 100’s of miles away, thinks noone would be interested in that particular game in my area.
Yes, I do remember the days when we opened things in game but, those achievements never gave me physical stuff.
Anyway that is my little tangent.
To answer @jedidia 's point, I pre-order and if the game releases and I decide I do not want it, I have the money shifted to another title. Of course, I am talking physical copies. Pre-ordering digital copies just makes no sense. It would be nice if there was a demo…even a tiny one…please HG…pretty, pretty, pretty please with sugar and icing on top please…well, I tried. 
Only reasons I preorder digitally are a) I can’t forget when the game starts preloading as scheduled, b) it preloads so no waiting for the store to open next day or for the mail to arrive, and c) for the very few games I care A LOT about I actually want the tiny little insignificant bonuses like a theme or whatever idiot bait they have going on there. 
What I did for NMS I only did for two other games in my life…I preordered three copies: physical PS4 CE and I bought a digital PS4 preorder and I preordered a PC copy on GOG. Right now it’s by far the game I most enjoyed and played in my life and I have zero regrets…I am happy I gave as much as I could to HG at the time and it helped a tiny little bit to giving them the financial stability to keep making the game. They HAD to release because they were completely out of money, if the game had failed financially there probably wouldn’t be a Hello Games today and we probably wouldn’t have seen any updates or ARG. I wouldn’t have given that much to a major greedy corporation though.
That just makes you a True Fan. Here’s a prize. 
Interesting. He’s complaining because he’s not being given special access to information that none of us knows.
And he freely admits that when he streams about NMS, he gets a whole 200 viewers.
A cynical person might think that this is a self-interested, self-promoting character, trying to generate a scare to gain favourable treatment. I’m sure he would love the scoop that nobody else has. Not PC, not PS4, and not Xbox.
Or perhaps I’m being harsh?
He’s not asking that only he be given special access to information and he’s not asking for spoilers either…he’s asking for basic information like how MP works(ie new game mode, invite based, etc.) and whether people need to pay money for XBL Gold subscription to play the multiplayer…and IF he tells the truth about having a special slot on the XB1 dashboard to talk about the game then I agree that he should be given that info. If he has access to speak directly to the Xbox community then I have no problem…please by all means…give the dude the basic details he needs to reach out to people.
As to ppl having to possibly pay for Gold sub, isn’t that a question for Microsoft? Does that have anything to do with HG?
That is an issue that developers generally know about and should be able to answer.
Or 505 Games - since HG are not the XBox publishers.
Exactly right
I honestly don’t understand the concern. It’s not like we do not know what this game is about. We know what content is in the game, we know for the biggest part what NMS is all about. This game was released almost 2 years ago! Yet so many seem to expect this new update to be marketed as a very first release.
We all know what happened when this game was first released, the hype and expectations it created before this happened. Hello Games decided to go all out on new planned content in silence and take a year off to realise their new content/plans. They were forced to do things differently, not to have the same bullshit happen all over again. They clearly planned to keep this all a mystery, while involving the community in a different way, through the ARG. In general we know what to expect with NEXT, it’s just the details we have no clue about.
So NO, there is no huge marketing campaign, no trailer, hardly any interviews. We will just have to wait and see what comes NEXT. In my opinion it’s media and publishers that spoiled the ‘usual’ way of bringing a game to the public. Instead they are involved with the community more than ever before through Waking Titan. Sure, not everyone likes an ARG, while others may have complaints about the actual content A&S delivers. It’s not like it is going to slow down or speed up release though. The next update will be delivered when it’s ready, no matter what. I think this is HG’s way of showing a big effing middle finger to the marketing expectations we have nowadays. At the same time they involve the appreciative, mostly ‘existing’ player base, keeping us busy with a different kind of entertainment.
This allows them to focus on their work for the upcoming - most likely - massive update. It also allows them to NOT give us all the details. We already ‘know’ No Man’s Sky, we know the general content of the update to come, we know when it will be released! All we don’t know are the specific details, so what?! We will find out soon enough, to then see for ourselves. It seems like most just want something to complain about, because that has become the new ‘norm’. We hardly care about what is actually good, or what we DO like about a game anymore. NMS has plenty to like, which has been the case for almost 2 years now.
NMS only got better over time, because HG cares enough about the game to keep adding content, for free if I may add … I honestly doubt their main reason to be the ‘shame’ on the brand that needs fixing. There are plenty ways to accomplish this, shady ways, usually. If you understand development even a tiny bit, to then actually listen to Sean Murray, you should know better! This guy loves what he does, most likely breathes code, waking up with creation on his mind.
Anyways …
Another reason to not really ‘needing’ a huge marketing campaign is once again, the game having been on PS4 and PC for 2 years already. Basically most gamers who truly want to play NMS, already own the game. Those who ONLY have an XBox to be able to play are likely - percentage wise - not a large part of the gaming community. Who doesn’t own a console AND a PC nowadays? Who doesn’t buy the console if the game they truly want is ONLY available on that platform? I honestly think, they are only a small part of the total gaming ‘market’. The WeGame platform is PC, pretty much similar to Steam, but based in Asia. This is even less a consideration, because those who want NMS, likely already got it on Steam or GOG, because both are available in that part of the world. In all honesty, many in that region still have doubts and complaints towards WeGame, which is still young, needing to improve and establish itself.
So all in all, Hello Games keeps the full details to themselves until the UPDATE is released. We already know what NMS is about after 2 years. Without releasing new details, there is nothing new to show. We know in general what the new update will entail. If you like NMS already you pretty much know what to expect. If you dislike NMS, the new update is not going to completely change the game. Those still on the edge will most likely wait and see to then decide. The discussion about deciding which platform to buy it on is BS in my opinion. The same choice has to be made for any other game, there is nothing inherently different when it comes to NMS. Only thing to consider is the fact this game being completely new to the XBox platform, that’s all.
In the end, NMS will sell itself, which is something I can imagine Sean Murray saying.
Note: Big thumbs down on that video. Disappointing to see how someone who should obviously know better, turns out to have no clue how the industry actually works.
On a side note: A shame the industry works as it does, but that’s a whole other story …
Some valid points. I know a number of ppl who are watching and interested in NMS when NEXT hits. They are simply waiting til it hits to make up their minds. I think the desire for a trailer is simply US…our expectation is pushing us to desperation…like I stated in another thread, the closer we get to release day, the harder it is to wait…
For the most part in today’s world I don’t think a game company can survive by only selling to it’s most hardcore audience…to some extent they have to reach out to people on the fence so to speak. And if DM21 has access to some people in high places at Microsoft like Aaron Greenberg and was assigned a slot on the Xbox dashboard where he can truly reach out to the Xbox community then I have no problem with him asking for this information…because he’s actually in a position to actually reach out and help the game be successful. As far as I am concerned he should let Hello Games know that “Hey, I got this wonderful direct line to speak to the Xbox players and these few basic details should be known before the game is out, help me help you.”
If he didn’t have the access that he does to the Xbox community and he was asking for that information I would probably agree he shouldn’t be asking for it…but he does…and it should not go to waste. To the multiplayer centric players the details of the multiplayer modes are important.