No Man’s Sky‘s sales drop by 81% in its second week on sale in the UK, with the recent controversies surrounding Hello Games’ space exploration title like to blame.
Earlier this month, Hello Games’ space exploration title No Man’s Sky rocketed up the sales charts. Available on PC and PS4, not only did the game become one of the best-selling games on Steam, but No Man’s Sky also became the second biggest PS4 launch ever. With Hello Games being a small indie team and with the game having been hampered with multiple delays, this was impressive to say the least.
However, No Man’s Sky’s second week on sale has not been quite as successful. According to GfK Chart-Track, which monitors video game sales in the UK, sales of No Man’s Sky in the region have dropped by 81%, with the newly released title slipping to number two on the list. Taking its place in pole position is F1 2016 which over took Hello Games’ space game despite sales of the Formula One racing sim having dropped by 32% in comparison to F1 2015.
It’s important to note that Chart-Track does not yet take into account digital sales meaning that F1 2016, which was released at retail on all of its available platforms (PC, PS4, and Xbox One), would automatically have an advantage over No Man’s Sky which only has retail copies on PS4. But, with this said, the recent controversies surrounding the game are likely a huge reason why the game was unable to sustain its high sales numbers more in week two.
Just some of the things putting a dampener on the game’s release include the suggestion that No Man’s Sky PS4 players are facing major frame-rate drops, with players on the console being advised not to travel too fast. Exploring planets too quickly, it has been suggested, can cause the game’s frame-rate to drop to as low as 20 frames per-second. Additionally, some fans have argued that Hello Games misled them about No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer features, with backlash only going after the online play logo was hidden on the game’s box art with a sticker.
Despite all of this, though, No Man’s Sky’s sales may pick up in the coming weeks and months. Hello Games is working on a No Man’s Sky PS4 patch which should hopefully fix many of the problems that players are facing and No Man’s Sky will be getting some free updates too, which may give those who’ve overlooked the exploration title a reason to consider it again.
[Source: Gamerant]
