UK advertising agency ASA is to investigate Hello Games over false advertising

[Master Disaster]

Today the ASA have confirmed they're investigating HG over a slew of complaints from angry gamers. Unfortunately the ASA have declined to comment on the case as it's still ongoing and details are pretty scarce. 

Quote

The watchdog launched its investigation after receiving "several complaints" about No Man's Sky advertising, a representative told me.

 

The ASA has the power to have advertisements it believes are in breach of its code of conduct withdrawn, and prevent them from appearing again. If an advertiser refuses to comply with an ASA ruling, it can impose sanctions, such as asking internet search websites to remove a marketer's paid-for search ads.

There is some stuff on reddit which states the investigation is focusing on the Steam store page and assets which are advertised but missing from the game. 

Quote

The investigation is on-going, and so the ASA declined to comment further, but one of the complainants revealed details of its response in a post on Reddit.

The investigation revolves around No Man's Sky's Steam store page, which includes assets some believe misrepresent the controversial space game.

 

The ASA has contacted both Hello Games and Valve and asked them to respond to a raft of questions relating to No Man's Sky advertisements.

 

Complaints centre around screenshots and videos that feature more advanced animal behaviour, large-scale combat and ship-flying behaviour than ended up in the launch version of the game. Complainants also say screenshots misrepresent the graphical quality of the game.

 

There are also complaints around the Steam store page's reference to a lack of loading screens and factions that contest territory.

Steam & HG have been asked to provide information for the case and while it's focus is on the Steam page the ASA have made it clear any ruling would apply to all UK based advertising of the game on any platform. 

Quote

While the complaints target Steam, the ASA said any ruling would apply to other advertising for No Man's Sky, such as official YouTube videos and the game's listing on the PlayStation Store.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-09-28-advertising-standards-launches-investigation-into-no-mans-sky

 

Good, it's about time someone held these scammers accountable. Remember the ASA only have jurisdiction over advertising and can only order adverts be changed or removed altogether but it's not unheard of for them to pass cases over to trading standards or even the police if they find evidence of criminal wrong doing. Guess time will tell on this one. 

[Kirky2k15]

I think this is a case of the hype train going at full speed over this game. I WAS going to buy it till I watched several youtube videos and read steam reviews the vast majority of which absolutely slaughtered this game so that put me right off. People that spent their hard earned will want their monies worth so fair play to them for complaining...

[BloodyWaters]

Yeah. I agree. I bought the game (the limited edition) and most of the interesting stuff they showed in the trailers and on the steam page is non-existent. The box that the game comes in even says there is online play, which proved to be non-existent as well. Hello Games is probably in hot water with Sony right now. 

[Sauron]

If only there were such things are game reviews that you could wait for before buying a game you know almost nothing about... surely people would inform themselves on exactly what they are buying instead of forking over money blindly and then saying they were scammed.

[Master Disaster]

37 minutes ago, Sauron said:

If only there were such things are game reviews that you could wait for before buying a game you know almost nothing about... surely people would inform themselves on exactly what they are buying instead of forking over money blindly and then saying they were scammed.

Having reviews available and being a savvy consumer doesn't give companies the rights to clearly advertise their product in a misleading and misrepresentating manner. 

[dragosudeki]

57 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Having reviews available and being a savvy consumer doesn't give companies the rights to clearly advertise their product in a misleading and misrepresentating manner. 

For all we know, they advertised their product properly, but forgot to add "with DLC" after every feature they talked about. Look how long it took for GTA to implement some of its online features they talked about before.

In the end, the moment they talked about procedurally generated content and having billions of worlds, you should have really stopped and thought about the game. Its so common for a game to have millions of different areas, but all with lackluster content. 

[Misanthrope]

6 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

For all we know, they advertised their product properly, but forgot to add "with DLC" after every feature they talked about.

Then how the fuck is that "properly" then?

 

I can't claim my restaurant offers all burgers 2x1 and then tell customers "Oh, I forgot that this was on monday mornings only, I didn't false advertise I just forgot a detail"

[Master Disaster]

16 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

For all we know, they advertised their product properly, but forgot to add "with DLC" after every feature they talked about. Look how long it took for GTA to implement some of its online features they talked about before.

In the end, the moment they talked about procedurally generated content and having billions of worlds, you should have really stopped and thought about the game. Its so common for a game to have millions of different areas, but all with lackluster content. 

Your assuming I bought it? Hell no, I saw that trainwreck for exactly what it was way before it released. 

[dragosudeki]

26 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Then how the fuck is that "properly" then?

 

I can't claim my restaurant offers all burgers 2x1 and then tell customers "Oh, I forgot that this was on monday mornings only, I didn't false advertise I just forgot a detail"

Terrible analogy. How many fast food restaurants offer the same burger you see in the picture of the menu or in the commercials? Advertisements are always meant to make the product better than what it is, and people buy into it. It's like watching all those infomercials and believing everything they are saying.

15 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Your assuming I bought it? Hell no, I saw that trainwreck for exactly what it was way before it released. 

Was talking about the general masses that followed the hype train. Only reason I avoided it, because I didn't know what the hell you were supposed to do in the game. Plus, I had Starbound on my plate at the time.

[Misanthrope]

6 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

Terrible analogy. How many fast food restaurants offer the same burger you see in the picture of the menu or in the commercials? Advertisements are always meant to make the product better than what it is, and people buy into it. It's like watching all those infomercials and believing everything they are saying.

So where is the online play?

 

 

Submitting the discoveries online cannot be classified as "play" not even by a moron in a hurry.

[dragosudeki]

13 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

So where is the online play?

 

Submitting the discoveries online cannot be classified as "play" not even by a moron in a hurry.

Maybe submitting discoveries and the fact that you are exploring an online universe with local worlds is considered as "online play". When you look at other games that include online multiplayer functionalities they classify the number of network players within a range. Call of Duty does that, and Destiny does that. Since this case is missing that, there are no other network players that can join your session. How is that false advertising?

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Having reviews available and being a savvy consumer doesn't give companies the rights to clearly advertise their product in a misleading and misrepresentating manner. 

But it does help you not get burned by those practices. The thing is, when a game is in development things change and what you promised one day may not be there any more the next. They certainly went out of their way to feed the hype and clearly either lied or heavily cut down the feature set before release, but this may not be an actual scam in legal terms - they were talking about a product that did not exist yet, and in no other industry would it be thinkable to sue a company because they talked about features of a product that ended up not being there at launch, because at launch all information is available for the customer to make an informed decision.

 

The right response is to wait for the game to drop, read reviews, do not buy the game and remember not to trust this company next time they feed the hype. It's really that simple, and if everyone did that I can guarantee you that the vast majority of incomplete launches, day one dlc and false hype would just go away. A developer has no interest in feeding the hype with lies if they know they won't get away with it, but they clearly can because people keep falling for the bait.

[Sauron]

37 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

So where is the online play?

Submitting the discoveries online cannot be classified as "play" not even by a moron in a hurry.

Cow clicker is considered a game, soooo...

[Misanthrope]

Just now, Sauron said:

Cow clicker is considered a game, soooo...

"game" is more vague than "gameplay" though. I think a court should decide this though.

[laminutederire]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

But it does help you not get burned by those practices. The thing is, when a game is in development things change and what you promised one day may not be there any more the next. They certainly went out of their way to feed the hype and clearly either lied or heavily cut down the feature set before release, but this may not be an actual scam in legal terms - they were talking about a product that did not exist yet, and in no other industry would it be thinkable to sue a company because they talked about features of a product that ended up not being there at launch, because at launch all information is available for the customer to make an informed decision.

 

The right response is to wait for the game to drop, read reviews, do not buy the game and remember not to trust this company next time they feed the hype. It's really that simple, and if everyone did that I can guarantee you that the vast majority of incomplete launches, day one dlc and false hype would just go away. A developer has no interest in feeding the hype with lies if they know they won't get away with it, but they clearly can because people keep falling for the bait.

The massive steam refund is a start to punish some studios, but as expected it doesn't happen with the big ones. Like mirror's edge catalyst was buggy and everything, but since the store is managed by the publisher of the game, there wasn't much punition to have from themselves. However with steam, it's like there is an authority to punish wrong practices. We need them to do it  as well.

If they don't,  it's the same debate than on the 1080ti thread, yes people aren't necessarily smart with their money

[Sauron]

5 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

The massive steam refund is a start to punish some studios, but as expected it doesn't happen with the big ones. Like mirror's edge catalyst was buggy and everything, but since the store is managed by the publisher of the game, there wasn't much punition to have from themselves. However with steam, it's like there is an authority to punish wrong practices. We need them to do it  as well.

If they don't,  it's the same debate than on the 1080ti thread, yes people aren't necessarily smart with their money

If refunds become a trend WB & friends will simply start publishing through their own platform like EA or Ubisoft, relying on steam refunds is like applying a band aid on a burst pipe. In fact, you're playing in Microsoft's hand - imagine how more appealing the windows marketplace will become to greedy publishers, with its aggressive DRM and the fact that MS can delete pirated games from a Windows pc if they feel it's worth the effort.

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, dragosudeki said:

Maybe submitting discoveries and the fact that you are exploring an online universe with local worlds is considered as "online play"

But didn't you say that they just "forgot" to mention the features are coming later on a DLC? Which excuse is it then? Whatever one suits you better to justify their pathetic and misleading advertisement?

[Bensemus]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

they were talking about a product that did not exist yet, and in no other industry would it be thinkable to sue a company because they talked about features of a product that ended up not being there at launch, because at launch all information is available for the customer to make an informed decision.

The steam page still advertises features that aren't in the game and have no timeline to be in the game. They, Hello Games, haven't updated their advertising at all to accurately convey the game they created. They are still advertising the game they talked about months ago, not the game they released.

[christianled59]

3 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

So where is the online play?

 

 

Submitting the discoveries online cannot be classified as "play" not even by a moron in a hurry.

I'd like to point out that the art on that box is bullshit too. Those ships in the bottom left never do anything and that robot thing on the top is NOWHERE in the game. They showed them in trailers but they're not in the game whatsoever. I can't believe they left it on the box.

(edit: I may be wrong about the walking robot. I played the game for 30 hours but never saw it anywhere)

 

 

Also, on previous box covers, there was a sticker on the box that covered up "multiplayer". Hold on, I'll try and find it.

 

 

 

Here you are:

[goodtofufriday]

6 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

So where is the online play?

 

 

Submitting the discoveries online cannot be classified as "play" not even by a moron in a hurry.

Online multiplayer used to be specifically stated as "networked players" on the ps3. On ps4 the online play became a more general term where the game can simply have online features. So the fact that their box says online play doesnt mean anything for anyones argument here.

[Misanthrope]

30 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

Online multiplayer used to be specifically stated as "networked players" on the ps3. On ps4 the online play became a more general term where the game can simply have online features. So the fact that their box says online play doesnt mean anything for anyones argument here.

Really? So why mysteriously edit the box as shown on the post directly above you?

 

The fact that nobody successfully sued company in courts yet doesn't means it doesn't means anything or it isn't false advertising. It's about time someone does sue.

[goodtofufriday]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Really? So why mysteriously edit the box as shown on the post directly above you?

 

The fact that nobody successfully sued company in courts yet doesn't means it doesn't means anything or it isn't false advertising. It's about time someone does sue.

The question was the box art you showed, not the other. Not saying hello games didnt lie, only that the icon you specifically pointed out does not always imply online multiplayer. You can find other ps4 games with the same icon that only have online elements. 

[Misanthrope]

18 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

The question was the box art you showed, not the other. Not saying hello games didnt lie, only that the icon you specifically pointed out does not always imply online multiplayer. You can find other ps4 games with the same icon that only have online elements. 

It does, you're just being disingenuous to continue down this pointless argument. Noted: you disagree. It's not up to you to decide or me we'll just see.

[goodtofufriday]

30 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

It does, you're just being disingenuous to continue down this pointless argument. Noted: you disagree. It's not up to you to decide or me we'll just see.

 

 

 

 

 

PS4 games claiming online multiplayer will have the following logo.