No Man’s Sky is still having trouble escaping the drama. Now the game that has sparked intense debate and discussion may find itself a part of a new conversation, one filled with a lot moreย legal terminology. ย No Man’s Sky was released back in early August with an impressive amount of pre-orders and hype for an independent title. All that excitement quickly began to wane, however, as playersย were fast to point out inconsistencies with how the gameย was marketed for the last couple ofย years versus the final product when it was released. In several capacities, the game simply failed to deliver. Between gamersโ displeased Twitter rants, to YouTube videos touting negative, albeit humorous reactions of the game, to Amazon and PlayStation completely refunding people their money regardless of how many hours of gameplay were put in, No Manโs Sky is barely two months old and has already caused a storm of dissatisfaction.

Now as of today, No Manโs Sky is under investigation by the UKโs Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA is an independent regulator of advertising across all media. Their work includes “acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.” Due to a formal complaint that was filed by a Reddit user, the ASA will be investigating whether the marketing forย No Manโs Skyโs was misleading to the buyers. In the complaint, theย Redditย user spoke of the game being โmisleading and misrepresentingโ on Steam. A lot of the issues that were brought up the deal with user interface design, the speed of galaxy/warp loading time, and aiming systems. You can read the full list of complaints and the official ASA response here.
If anything comes of the investigation, the ASA has the ability to remove any type of advertising they view as misleading. Despite the fact these claims were filed against the Steam version ofย No Man’s Sky, if the ASA takes action, the game’sย presence could be affected in the PlayStation Store, YouTube, and any other media outlet. Stay tuned to The Nerd Stash for any updates. You can also read our review of No Man’s Sky here.