Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Red very cheekily congratulated Hello Games on the reveal of its ambitious new fantasy game Light No Fire at The Game Awards 2023, seemingly joking about the two studios’ respective controversies and eventual redemption arcs.
For some context, Hello Games released No Man’s Sky to widespread criticism that it was missing many of the features promised by studio founder Sean Murray. However, over the years, the game has added a handful of massive updates that have effectively improved public perception to the point that No Man’s Sky is today considered one of the best open-world games out there and recently took home a Golden Joystick Award for the “Still Playing” category.
Somewhat similarly, Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch back in 2020, although that was more so due to issues like glitches, visual shortcomings, AI goofiness, and progress-blocking crashes. Compare that to today, where Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty won the Golden Joystick Award for best game expansion, and you can see both games have come a long, long way from release.
It seems to be in that spirit that we have this rather surreal interaction between CDPR and Murray:
You can always fix it later. 😅 Congrats on the impressive reveal.December 8, 2023
It isn’t only Murray who’s worried Hello Games is repeating its mistakes by overpromising. A bunch of No Man’s Sky fans are pleading with Murray not to do exactly that after the developer said Light No Fire would be “the first real open”world”—whatever that means.
Looking for more games to quench your thirst for exploration? Check out our guide to games like No Man’s Sky.
