Note: This post has been updated towards the bottom but reported from the time the news broke to the most current news. In interest in keeping up with the drama as it happened we left all prior content untouched and added information as it becomes available.
Hello Games shocked the Internet when a tweet went out on their official page about their infamously flubbed game of 2016 No Man's Sky. The tweet (which has been deleted) can be seen below...
According to Forbes (who received confirmation from Hello Games), this wasn't a hack, but rather an angry employee. While Hello Games wouldn't just come out and say it, Sean Murray, mastermind of Hello Games, admitted to it himself in an email to Polygon. That said, we still don't know at this time whether or not it's actually Sean Murray (as he hasn't posted to Twitter in months) or a disgruntled employee that has a bunch of passwords at his disposal.
I hope all indie game developers have been taking note on this experience, as it's been a trainwreck since launch. Can it get any worse?
Update:
So now Mashable is claiming they actually talked to Sean Murray who says that the tweet came from someone in the building and they are working on resolving the issue internally. Murray has broken his Twitter silence to say the following...
Server hacked. We're binging Mr Robot Episodes as quickly as we can looking for answers. Ep05 is a cracker
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016
If anything was a mistake, it was using Linked In without 2FA.
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016
For those that don't immediately understand that, Murray believes the hack came from his information being leaked after a LinkedIn breach. Murray seems to be in good spirits as Hello Games has now locked their account...
.@hellogames are you still hacked and stuff?
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016
And now Hello Games is saying that they were hacked and that everything prior to Sean's tweets was a result of the hack including the emails...weird stuff...so was Murray saying it was an inside job part of the hack? I don't know what to believe anymore but I think this one is put to rest.
Many fans are taking this oppurtunity to press Hello Games for an update on the game for those who are still reporting it...we'll let you know if they say something. For those curious as to what that email to Polygon said...here it is...
No Man's Sky was a mistake.
I have contacted you because the silence from Hello Games has been unwarranted and unprofessional. The community has asked me to speak up, and I have a confession to make. The game was simply unfinished upon arrival. Our hand was forced by not only Sony, but the community as well. The constant harassment and absolute gross misconduct on the community's part has made it hard to fulfill our artistic vision, while the pressure from Sony to release the game as soon as possible forced us to cut key features. I want to apologize for what we did not deliver on, as the game does not meet up to what our artistic vision was.
However, we do wish that the community was more understanding of our situation. Many people have asked for refunds despite our promise to continually improve and update No Man's Sky. We are just a small studio that has poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this project. The complete lack of respect when it comes to the work we have done absolutely saddens not only myself, but the team as well. We want to improve the game to the point we dreamed of it being and beyond.
I hope everyone affected understands,
Sean Murray
Polygon notes that the spelling on some of the words is American and not the English spelling which would be confusing as Murray is English.
