PlayStation CEO: ‘No Man’s Sky PR strategy wasn’t great’

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, has described No Man’s Sky’s PR strategy as “not great.” He also says he understands some of the criticism that the foreman of development studio Hello Games has to endure.

Sony is the publisher of the PS4 Blu-ray version of the game and the PlayStation 4 is the only console on which the game can be played. Eurogamer spoke to Yoshida at the Tokyo Game Show. “I had the opportunity to play the game before and after the day 1 patch,” he says. “I could clearly see how hard the developers had to fight to get the game out in the state they wanted.” The Japanese himself would have enjoyed the game, but he would also understand why people might experience it differently.

“I understand some of the criticism he’s getting. He sounded like he was promising more features from the start than there were in the game.” According to Yoshida, Murray could have benefited from a PR specialist, but indie developers often don’t have one. Still, he is optimistic about the game and will continue to play it to try out the features it will get in the future. The PlayStation CEO makes no statements about future collaborations between Hello Games and Sony.

No Man’s Sky came under fire after its release because certain features Murray talked about in interviews were found to be missing. In particular, the opportunity to encounter other players in the game was missed by gamers. Murray never discussed the omission of this aspect of No Man’s Sky in detail, much to the dismay of some of the audience.