Not everything you do as a video game developer will land well with audiences. Whether you’re unable to deliver on promises made or the finished product just doesn’t resonate with a defined audience, failure is a common element of game development. It’s what you do with that failure that will define what happens next.

It’s easy to want to throw your hands up and quit, but what if you shifted gears and instead made light of your game’s shortcomings? It’s a bold tactic, but being able to laugh at your mistakes also shows that you’re growing and learning. 

While it may sound like an absurd idea bound to drum up even more controversy, the industry watched as one developer found humor in one of gaming’s biggest controversies of 2016. 

No Man’s Sky: A Case Study of Humor as Marketing

It was meant to be the game that presented players with an expansive universe full of regions to explore, galactic factions to war against, and extraterrestrial fauna to observe and study. Players were promised space piracy and an elaborate AI that remembered everywhere explorers went. Yet when No Man’s Sky was released, it had none of these features and presented with an exhaustive list of broken promises made by Hello Games founder Sean Murray. The controversy dominated the video game news circuit, and Murray became a sort of unintentional villain of the industry.

Fast-forward eight years, and No Man’s Sky has evolved much closer to the game that Murray promised, suggesting that the developer’s eyes were simply much bigger than his capabilities at the time. And while he has since earned favor in the industry, that debacle remains engrained in his history. So when he was presented the opportunity to announce Hello Games’ next project, Light No Fire, surely Murray would have learned his lesson.

Right?

During the 2023 The Game Awards, Murray took to the stage alongside host Geoff Keighley to reveal Light No Fire. Touted as something quite different from No Man Sky, it didn’t take long for Murray to launch into some bold statements about what players could expect in Hello Game’s next project. Even Keighley scoffed when Murray called Light No Fire “more ambitious.”

Yes, Sean Murray and the development team at Hello Games have a stigma attached to them. But rather than complain and beg for forgiveness and a clean slate, they run with it. Two days after the reveal for Light No Fire, Murray posted a meme poking fun of both the No Man’s Sky blunder and the ambitious promises already made for the next game.
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Murray is capable of something that so few seem to be—and that’s not taking himself too seriously. Developers often forget that the gaming industry is meant to be fun. Even failed projects can be spun to be a humorous black mark on a developer’s timeline so long as they’re willing to laugh at themselves.

A PR Blunder Can Be Your Next Marketing Opportunity

Don’t underestimate your audience. Murray didn’t. Your players may appreciate that you’re taking a disaster, learning from it, and having fun with the community while doing so. Not sure you can make that leap from failure to making jokes? It’s definitely not easy, and not everyone is able to pull it off.

If you’re facing a No Man’s Sky-sized mistake or want to know how to take even the smallest missteps and turn them into a hearty laugh for your audience, we’d love to lend a hand. Loopr PR & Marketing specializes in unique marketing opportunities to maximize the favor you have with your audience, allowing you to seamlessly move from a PR disaster to something positive.