Well, I suppose it was bound to happen eventually but, from what I gather, this was a more egregious example than most. Indie developer Hello Games and Valve, operator of the Steam site,
are being investigated by Britain's Advertising Standards Agency over allegations that
No Man's Sky's "promotional materials do not accurately represent the game experience".
I know that there is a lot of anger that Hello Games apparently cut a huge amount of promised content and features from the release version of
No Man's Sky and that a lot of players think that they've been charged $60 for a $30 game. I also know that Hello Games didn't earn any friends by publicly musing that this promised content may only be available (should it ever become available) as premium paid-for DLC rather than as a free patch. I also know that Sony (the game's publisher) have gently criticised them for over-promising features and seem to be hanging them out to dry by saying they had nothing to do with it.
What can the ASA do? As I understand it, not that much although they could apparently order any search engine operating in Britain (including giants like Google) not to link to Steam until they removed the offending materials from their site. That alone could be an earthquake. However, they could easily pass the file onto other regulators that might possibly fine Valve for knowingly publishing inaccurate adverts. This could be considered a green light for lawsuits in the far larger US market, where Steam's revised refund policy over NMS is raising the temperature in many a gamer's bedroom.
So, what does this mean to gamers out there? Will the furore over
No Man's Sky lead to a new level of caution and honesty in game marketing materials or will the industry throw Hello Games under a bus and claim that they were unrepresentative bad apples before going on to continue to make cinematic CGI trailers with "Not Real In-Game Footage" in tiny lettering at the bottom of the screen?