That Mysterious, Deleted 'No Man's Sky' Tweet Wasn't A Hack [Updated]



Erik Kain ,   CONTRIBUTOR
I write about the intersection of entertainment and technology.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Was No Man's Sky a mistake? One Hello Games employee thinks so. (Credit: Hello Games)
Was No Man’s Sky a mistake? One Hello Games employee thinks so. (Credit: Hello Games)

See numerous updates below as this very peculiar story unfolds in real time…

Developer Hello Games has been strangely silent since the summer release of their game, No Man’s Sky. It’s been one of those silences that somehow grows louder and louder the longer it remains.

Then, this morning, all that changed. “No Man’s Sky was a mistake,” the developer’s Twitter feed proclaimed, shockingly, for all the world to see.

The tweet was quickly taken down (Update: It’s still visible on the company’s website at the time of this writing) and Hello Games changed the status of their account to private, leading many to speculate that this was a hack.

It wasn’t.

The deleted tweet. (Credit: Hello Games)

I reached out to the developer and asked them whether it was a hack. A representative of Hello Games replied, telling me that a “disgruntled employee” had made the tweet and that they were “currently trying to sort out the issue.”

Hello Games is a small company despite the massive hype and equally massive controversy surrounding No Man’s Sky. They list just sixteen employees. That narrows the chances of who exactly posted the rogue tweet, though not enough to start guessing. Regardless, these past few months must have been difficult ones for the indie developer; I’d be surprised if there weren’t disgruntled employees at this point.

I do wish that Hello Games and its lead, Sean Murray, would come out of hiding and talk candidly about the launch of, and reaction to, No Man’s Sky. Rogue tweets should not do the speaking for them. Nor should they give up on the game itself, which could still improve with more work and tender loving care.

Update: Polygon reports that Sean Murray himself has taken credit for the Tweet. In an email from his personal account he writes, “The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down. We have not been coping well.” Whether Murray’s email has been hacked, or the entirety of Hello Games has been hacked, or Murray was indeed the disgruntled employee remains unclear. It certainly does appear to be the case, however.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Update 2: Mashable got the same response as I did, but Sean Murray signed it (the email to yours truly was unsigned.) So…this is almost too bizarre to wrap my head around.

Update 3: Sean Murray is on Twitter saying their servers were hacked. Whether this means earlier correspondence was fake—or if they’re still hacked and this is also fake—is sort of hard to say at this point.

Server hacked. We’re binging Mr Robot Episodes as quickly as we can looking for answers. Ep05 is a cracker

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016

Update 4: Murray (or someone claiming to be Murray?) has now tweeted that the supposed hack was due to LinkedIn. What I find frustrating is all the contradicting information and the renewed silence of Hello Games.

I have reached out to the developer via email and on Twitter asking for clarification. I have questions. For instance, is Murray now claiming that the email sent to myself and other journalists claiming this was all a disgruntled employee’s doing part of this apparent hack? Or is this merely damage control?

The fact is, with everything going on today and all the contradicting messages, we don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. We don’t even know that this is Sean Murray tweeting. I’ve asked Hello Games to speak on the phone, but can’t find a phone number to contact them myself.

Whatever the case, take everything here with a grain of salt. I would argue that, given the randomness and contradictory nature of these emails and tweets, that you should take everything pre and post “hack” with appropriate skepticism. Something isn’t right here, and until we get actual answers we have only speculation.

Update 5: This was just tweeted by Sean Murray to Hello Games:

.@hellogames are you still hacked and stuff?

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016

I am confused. I do not understand what purpose this serves. Something seems deeply amiss.

Update 6: Kotaku has some interesting updates on this, including a lengthy email they received that appears to be fake. Then again, that email looks utterly different from the very short one I received. If this was all just a hack, why didn’t I receive the same lengthy email that Kotaku received? Why did I receive such a short response:

screenshot-602

Update 7: Hello Games has “responded” to Sean Murray (scare quotes because Sean Murray is the Hello Games chief and this whole conversation is really strange.) They are claiming that all the emails were part of the hack, from the lengthy strange one sent to Kotaku, to the simple two-line response sent to me claiming this was a disgruntled employee. At this point I don’t know what to believe, but I can say this is a very peculiar way of handling this situation and sets off all kinds of alarm bells for me. I’m not sure if we will get to the bottom of this or not. I would like to see Murray make a video statement.

.@NoMansSky 100% not hacked anymore… obviously those mails and that tweet were fake. Back to work