No Man’s Sky Reception Addressed by Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman

Shawn Layden discusses the disappointment.

Posted By | On 04th, Nov. 2016

No Man's Sky

In case you were wondering, the tyre fire that is hatred towards Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky is still on-going. In the midst of all this, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden spoke about the reaction to the game and the current on-going controversies surrounding it.

Appearing on Live with YouTube Gaming (thanks Neogaf user black070 for the transcription), Layden said that Hello Games had “incredible vision” and “very huge ambition” for only having six people develop it. This is keeping in mind that some features that were hyped didn’t launch with the main game.

Layden also noted that with the team is “still working on it. They’re still updating it. They’re trying to get it closer enough or closer to what their vision was. I played a lot when it came out.

“I think Hello Games, Sean Murray and his team, had an incredible vision on what they were going to create. Something never done before. And a very small team had a very huge. ambition. Now, they’re still working at it. They’re still updating it. They’re trying to get it closer to what their vision was. I played a lot when it came out.
I think what we learned from that is that we don’t wanna stifle ambition. We don’t wanna stifle creativity. We don’t wanna put people into slots where they must execute against an action adventure path or a fighting path or a shooting path,” he stated.

The ambition of the team was still praised and Layden noted that “nobody in development wants to say that they can’t do a thing, right? No one wants to tell someone “No I can’t do that for you.” People are really trying. I think looking at the different industries in which I had the privilege of working, the gaming industry is where everybody has the courage to say “yes.” And they want to try to realize their ambitions. They want to try to make that vision. No one slinks away from a huge challenge. And some times you just don’t get all the way there at the first go.”

Your take on it? Let us know in the comments.


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