No Man’s Sky to be investigated by Advertising Standards Agency over ‘misleading’ marketing

Some of the images used in marketing the game are from as long back as 2014, but are still being used

One of the planets players will be able to explore when No Man's Sky comes out (Hello Games)

No Man’s Sky, one of the biggest games of the year, is being investigated by the UK’s advertising officials over claims it misled gamers.

The investigation is a response to complaints from a huge number of players that the marketing materials don’t reflect the actual experience of the game. In particular, they have said that the pictures being used to show what happens in it don’t actually show anything like what the game actually turned out to be.

The investigation is particularly focusing on the content of the game’s Steam page, where people can buy and download the game for PC. That uses some videos that were taken in 2014 – showing a very different game from the one that actually made it to customers.

Players have complained that the trailer gave the impression there’d be space combat, multiplayer modes and worlds full of animals that could interact with each other. Many of those feature didn’t turn up – and led to a mini-controversy as one of the year’s biggest games became its most divisive.

Customers argued that they should receive refunds because of the way the game had been marketed and began to compile dossiers of everything that had been missing.

Now players have complained to the Advertising Standards Agency that the marketing for the game was misleading.

"We are investigating whether the content of the Steam store page (comprising trailers, screenshots and written statements) includes claims that specific features will be included in the No Man's Sky game that were not present in the final release," an ASA spokesperson said.