Hello Games and Valve have been cleared of any allegations pertaining to false advertising and misleading concepts, The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reported. The investigation started after a plethora of players submitted their complaints about the way Steam has advertised No Man's Sky.
A couple of months back, the UK advertising regulations group received complaints about No Man's Sky's Steam page. The complaints said that the in-game content was not properly described nor accurately depicted in the game's marketing material. The alarming number of complaints and its severity prompted the ASA to launch a formal investigation.
Hello Games was allowed by Valve to be the only defendant in the case. Fortunately for both companies, the ASA has set out finding that all videos, screenshots, writing material, and other content displayed on No Man's Sky's steam page are true representations of the game.
The ASA was convinced with Hello Game's proclamation that player experiences would vary since No Man's Sky uses a procedurally generated algorithm to produce the game's current play state. They also added that just because it isn't experienced by one player, it will not mean that the sought after experience such as specific landscapes, creatures, structures, and battles will not be in the game.
"We understood that, as No Man's Sky was procedurally generated, player experiences would vary according to what material was generated in their play-through,"
Technical complaints about No Man's Sky's varied performance were also defended by Hello Games and agreed upon by the ASA. The game developer defended that game performance will vary since individual PCs have different hardware specifications. The regulating body was even satisfied with the studio's move to capture No Man's Sky's trailer footage from a PC that has a typical spec.
In summary, the ASA did not find enough evidence to push thru with false advertising or any means that would mislead people who bought No Man's Sky. They also asserted that any changes Hello made prior to the launch of the game are merely superficial. The conclusion stands to side that there are no codes being breached in terms of misleading ads or false advertising.
