No Man's Sky Players Thank Hello Games With A Billboard

How often do we get a really positive community story in video games? It seems like it's happening less and less these days, as games launch buggy and broken, and players become more and more cynical. But then you read about something like what the No Man's Sky community is doing, and you can't help but smile.

No Man's Sky didn't have the greatest launch, and was rightly criticized for making a lot of promises it couldn't keep. Over the past few years, however, the team at Hello Games has worked tirelessly to improve No Man's Sky, adding large expansions and a number of new features. And now the game's harshest critics — those who've played since the start — are showing their appreciation with a billboard.

The billboard, according to Twinfinite, isn't quite up just yet. But the folks at r/NoMansSkyTheGame who raised money for it have more than surpassed their goal. The billboard itself will sit right outside Hello Games' offices in the U.K. town of Guildford, right where the team behind the game can see it. And it'll share one very simple message, from the fans of No Man's Sky to those directly involved in creating it and improving it: "Thank you Hello Games."

When Hello Games' Sean Murray caught wind of the billboard fundraiser, he tweeted out a shocked "Oh. My. God." And really, Murray's surprise might be shared by just about anyone who pays attention to gaming. It can be easy to get caught up in what the wider internet is saying about a game, and easy to pile on to the public shaming of a developer or publisher. But it's also important to remember that not everyone commenting has played the game or, really, been affected in any way whatsoever. The people who are truly invested in No Man's Sky — those having fun while still wanting the game to improve — are, for the most part, supportive and thankful when it feels like their feedback is being taken into consideration.

The "Thank you Hello Games" billboard will be proof of that. It's set to go up for a week beginning on Aug. 12, 2019, and hopefully — hopefully — it's not the final act of grace we see from a game's community. We'd much rather share these kinds of stories.