Dear Mr Boyce
Your complaint – Valve Corporation in association with Hello Games Ltd
Further to the recent email from my colleague, we have carried out an initial assessment of your complaint and have decided that further investigation is needed. This means that we will now contact Valve and Hello Games for their comments on the concerns raised about the presentation of game features on the Steam store page.
We received a number of complaints covering a variety of online content and decided that, because it covers all the issues raised in these complaints and is still actively in use, we would focus our investigation on the Steam webpage for the game. Under the CAP Code, both Steam and Hello Games are responsible for the advertising content on that page. The outcomes of ASA investigations are cross-applicable to other marketing making the same claims, so any decision reached in relation to the Steam page would apply to other advertising for No Man’s Sky where the same (or materially similar) claims appear. Therefore, although we will not be including other material in this investigation, concerns about other ads will still be covered.
The complaints we received touched on a range of material, some of which (such as interviews with third parties, or press releases) fell outside of the ASA’s remit. We have carefully considered the content on the Steam store page and assessed it against the concerns raised. Having done this, we will be asking the advertisers to provide evidence relating to the implementation of the following features as depicted or described on the page:
Videos
User interface design
Ship flying behaviour (in formation; with a ‘wingman’; flying close to the ground)
Behaviour of animals (in herds; destroying scenery; in water; reacting to surroundings)
Large-scale space combat
Structures and buildings as pictured
Flowing water
Speed of galaxy warp/loading time
Aiming systems
Screenshots
Size of creatures (9)
Behaviour of ships and sentinels (4, 5 and 8)
Structures and buildings as pictured (3)
Page in general
Quality of graphics
References to:
lack of loading screens
trade convoys between stars
factions vying over territory
We acknowledge that some complainants referred to additional claims or imagery; these have not been included in the investigation because they did not appear on the Steam store page. Nonetheless, such concerns were all reviewed fully and we will ensure the advertisers are made aware of any points relating to other marketing material under their control (such as the Hello Games YouTube channel and website).
We will now commence our investigation and discuss the above with Valve and Hello Games. Once we have completed our work, we will be in touch to notify you of the outcome.
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