As reported by GamesRadar, Hello Games head Sean Murray took to Twitter to celebrate No Man's Sky clawing another point in its "All Reviews" rating on Steam to 78% positive, noting that as time goes on and more reviews are added, each tick up is harder to earn.
"Guys we just ticked up to 78% positive in All Reviews," Murray wrote. "2021 we hit mostly positve (70%) which took five years. Mathematically each % point is much harder to gain than the last—I never thought it possible, but guys we might hit 'Very Positive' (80%) one day."
That insight into the lifetime evolution of a game's Steam review score is fascinating to me—right at a game's release it can be such a fluid thing, vacillating wildly in response to reviews, discourse, microtransaction controversies, made-up controversies, you name it. Eight years on and with nearly 224,000 reviews in the bank, the needle is just that difficult to move for Hello Games and No Man's Sky.
An 80% score would be a great symbolic win for the once-embattled space sim and its developer, but it's not nearly as existentially important for Hello Games as it might be for other devs on Steam. No Man's Sky and its redemption arc are a pretty known quantity for gamers at this point, and the game's already sold extremely well. For more obscure developers, positive reviews and wishlists are key metrics that translate directly into sales, with algorithmic discovery being necessary to cut through the cacophony of new releases on the platform.
Here's hoping that the studio's follow-up, Light No Fire, has a shorter path to acclaim—maybe it'll just be good, no "redemption arc" necessary. Murray seems to be playing to his reputation for grandiose claims with the "Earth-sized" upcoming RPG, but as PCG executive editor Tyler Wilde has pointed out, did we really want or expect a sober, chastened Murray to come out and say "Hey guys, we're just making a normal one this time."
huxtiblejones on April 9th, 2024 at 16:21 UTC »
I reevaluated my original review of NMS to positive from negative when they released the first few updates. Sadly, I think a lot of people felt so burned by the game on release that they never revisited it to see how it's improved.
Kangarou on April 9th, 2024 at 15:04 UTC »
This man really said “I refuse to be the next Peter Molyneux” and is making sure he’s better every day. Good on him and Hello Games.
Scoops213 on April 9th, 2024 at 14:09 UTC »
It makes me wonder the use case of steams long term rating calculations. I get why they are there, but with cases like this it shows just how hard it is to alter that, even if a team really does, in earnest, turn things around.
It's almost like a scarlet letter of games.
Personally, I use both long term and most recent when making a purchase choice, but I doubt everyone does.