No Man's Sky Designer Leaves Hello Games to Work on Star Citizen

While No Man's Sky was not met with the greatest critical response from fans and reviewers alike, there have been reports that work on the game would continue in order to live up to its lofty expectations promised prior to its release. Now, this seems unlikely.

According to the LinkedIn profile of the game's designer, Gareth Bourn discovered by iDigital Times, he has now moved on to Foundry 42. Bourn is working on Star Citizen — another space exploration title that made headlines for being one of the highest crowdfunded games ever.

(Also see:  No Man's Sky Is One of the Lowest Rated Games on Steam)

It's not out of the ordinary for game developers to move on from studios after a game has been released. In Bourn's case though, he's been with Hello Games for close to six years, working on the likes of Joe Danger too.

The irony of working on one overhyped space simulator only to be found on another has not been lost on game developers who were quick to comment. More so considering that much like No Man's Sky, Star Citizen has been subject to multiple delays thanks to lofty promises that seem unlikely to be met.

As for No Man's Sky itself, there's been little in the way of actual updates over the last three months. Whether that will change or not, remains to be seen.

(Also see:  No Man's Sky PR Strategy 'Wasn't Great': Sony Worldwide Studios Boss)

For many, No Man's Sky was nowhere close to what Hello Games founder Sean Murray promised it would be. More so with a massive Reddit post detailing missing features (which was deleted later) albeit archived on other sites such as the aptly named One Man's Lie. Despite Sony's efforts at marketing the game, it couldn't stop consumers trying to refund it en-masse. Safe to say, the game was a public relations nightmare. And Sony's Shuhei Yoshida agrees. The President of Sony Worldwide Studios had this to say: 

"I understand some of the criticisms especially Sean Murray is getting, because he sounded like he was promising more features in the game from day one. "It wasn't a great PR strategy, because he didn't have a PR person helping him, and in the end he is an indie developer. But he says their plan is to continue to develop No Man's Sky features and such, and I'm looking forward to continuing to play the game."

We found No Man's Sky to be a repetitive, superficial experience. You can check out our full review here.