There's been a ratcheting of tensions between Riot Games and the League of Legends community recently, which we covered in-depth in this piece on the rise of #LCSForever. In the midst of all that, a related controversy has arisen: HTC Esports has dropped a pointed hint on Facebook that it may pull its LCS sponsorships if Riot doesn't loosen up marketing restrictions on how it uses players it funds.

The statement was made in response to this comment in the Reddit thread discussing the conversation between Marc Tryndamere Merrill and Andy Reginald Dinh. A redditor asked about a promotional video Team SoloMid had created for HTC, which Riot demanded be taken down. RiotMagus responded to the question by saying it wasn't actually an HTC promo at all, but an advertisement for somebody else's VR game.

Regardless of whether HTC organized this or not, it's a tactic [sic] advertisement for another game, RiotMagus wrote. This is against LCS rules because LCS isn't a platform for other game companies to advertise on yes, this means there's a category that teams don't have access to but for any sport, letting quasi competitors advertise on the league doesn't make sense.

HTC Esports sees the situation very differently. As we examine the landscape of advertising in the LCS community, we find ourselves at an impasse. If Riot does not want us making videos that feature our sponsored players playing other games, we do not have many options for showcasing our products. In addition, the /r/leagueoflegends subreddit mods do not accept any of our original video advertisements, including videos as well produced as 'Retirement Home,' or others that prominently feature our sponsored players. Sponsors are now very limited in what we can do to market our brand and products while still supporting the League of Legends scene, it wrote.

As one of the first major non-endemic sponsors in the West, we believe we have helped pioneer marketing in esports, and we ve loved every second of it, it continued. But with less avenues for advertisement in League of Legends, stemming from the restrictions on the teams and players, restrictions on the subreddit, and the lack of available marketing opportunities at competitions, it is becoming difficult to justify our investments into the scene.

The message ends with an olive branch extended, as HTC expresses hope for clear and reasonable guidelines on marketing and a solution that will benefit all parties involved. But it's clear that HTC Esports is unsatisfied with the status quo, and its decision to express that dissatisfaction publicly, here and now, isn't likely to be coincidental. Riot may be resistant to change, but if sponsors joins teams and owners under the #LCSForever banner, or form something similar of their own, it may have no choice but to consider their demands more seriously, and sooner than might have been expected.

Fellow PC gamers, we are gathered here today to remember an old friend, one whose warranty expired long ago. As laid out in the law of the upgrade cycle, we must let go of those components that can no longer keep pace with modern demands. And so, it is with heavy hearts that we say our final goodbyes to you, our constant companion for the last 20 years.

Rest in peace, humble optical drive.

You were once a cornerstone of this community, a bringer of joy, a portal to play, an ally in our pursuit of entertainment. You gave us the gorgeous world of Myst, the sublime soundscape of Quake, the unprecedented complexity of Half-Life. You were a marvel of your age, drawing realms of infinite possibility out of those small, innocuous discs. At the time, it felt like nothing less than magic.

Nearly 30 years ago now, you entered this world with a vision. Armed with Red Book audio and full-motion video, you sold us the Hollywood dream, treating us to Mark Hamill taking on a race of giant cat aliens, Jeff Goldblum killing it as Dracula, Christopher Walken telling it to us straight, and... this immaculate performance. Video games seemed poised to replace movies altogether; why would we watch if we could play instead? Alas, it was not meant to be, but we'll always have those fond memories, thanks to you. Your legacy will live on inside us all.

As we commit you to the great server in the sky, let us reflect on all the good you did for this world. Who can forget how crucial you were during the dial-up days? The spiral cords of our 56K modems strained under the weight of individual mp3s; the thought of downloading an entire 750MB CD-ROM was unfathomable. Even when cable internet arrived on the scene, we still relied on you to support us through the file-size boom of the DVD era. Steam might have dethroned you eventually, but your stability during the platform's early, rocky years was what kept us gaming.

In your youth, your laissez-faire attitude allowed our community to flourish unabated. I, personally, owe some of my favourite childhood memories to your liberal approach to game trading; as a kid, hiring and borrowing games was the only way I could afford to play. Thanks to borrowing a friend's copy of Diablo II, I discovered my penchant for click-'em-ups. Thanks to renting Battlefield 1942, I grokked the appeal of online multiplayer. Thanks to hiring out Baldur's Gate II, I realised that games could tell big, complex stories that actually leveraged their interactivity instead of ignoring it. Of course, we all understand why you had to jump on the DRM train once people started abusing your freedoms. Still, those unbridled early years were crucial in making our community as great as it is today.

Alas, those halcyon days are far behind us. The battle of the distribution models is over, and there's no question who lost. How could it have gone any other way? Steam lets us pre-order, pre-load, patch, and play, all without leaving the comfort of our desk chairs. Gone are the overloaded shelves buckling beneath the weight of bejewelled CD cases and boxy collectors editions. Never again do we have to rummage around in dusty attics and dank basements to find that old copy of Day of the Tentacle, only for you to whine like a circular saw when we put the disc in because it isn't mint-out-of-box.

For all the joy you gave us, we cannot ignore the dark times you begat. Refusing to read brand new discs until we'd carefully wiped off every minute mote of dust. Scratching up our favourite games as punishment for playing them too much. Demanding that we 'Insert Disc 2' when it was already in the damn tray. And those multi-disc installs! How can you expect us to set aside multiple hours just to swap GTA 5's seven DVDs in and out?

At least you re in a better place now, one where the RPMs are infinite and the CDs are truly scratch-proof. Because as much as it pains us to say it on this day of mourning, you were holding this industry back. Bite-sized games never stood a chance against the pains of disc-swapping. Aspiring developers cringed at the cost of pressing and shipping discs. If we hadn't moved on to the all-digital now, we'd never have known the haunting oppression of Papers, Please, the touching tale of Gone Home, the time-bending antics of Superhot. We'd have to bid farewell to our hundreds-large Steam libraries or else buy a second house just to store all the CDs.

The fact is, old friend, we simply don't have the space for you anymore. Not in our homes, and not in our hearts. Your place at the top of our PC towers is no more. Our mini-ITX cases no longer give you a berth. We will never again hear your mechanical whirr, your voice silenced by the hum of our bigger and better hard drives. From caches to ashes, from disc to dusk, your time is up. You re just too slow for this digital world.

16X. 8X. 4X. 2X. 1X. Eject.

The Killing Floor 2 Tactical Response update is now live, bringing new SWAT perks and weaponry to the game, a new map, tweaks to existing perks and Zed resistances, plus new achievements and loyalty rewards.

The SWAT perk adds the FN P90, MP7, MP5RAS, and Kriss Vector submachineguns to the game, along with a flashbang grenade that carries a high chance of stunning Zeds, and a tactical knife, for when the situation gets really out of hand. Which seems to be pretty much always. A new elite variant of the Horzine Security Armor and Horzine 9mm pistol will also be given to everyone who plays Killing Floor 2 during early access, and there's a new set of "cardboard armor" that will be available for purchase in a new cosmetic bundle.

The new map, called Infernal Realm, is actually a community creation that's been adopted into the official lineup. The title offers a pretty good hint of what to expect, as players will face off against Zeds surrounded by bones, hanging corpses, brimstone, and hellfire. And the trader is a totem made of bones. That can't be a good sign.

Almost all of the pre-existing perks have been tweaked to some extent, but Tripwire said Firebug, Support, and Medic were given more attention than most in order to better balance their skills. Zeds have also had their resistances revised, their movement and evasion tactics made more challenging, and their spawn groups adjusted, creating a much more intense experience on higher difficulty levels, it said. And watch out for Hans. Really. He's been at the gym or something.

The full Killing Floor 2: Tactical Response update changelog is available on Steam.

If you ve been following the discussion surrounding League of Legends lately, you ll know that things have gotten intense. This is down to issues in the competitive scene that have been brewing for a long time. They re largely financial in nature: we touched on why teams are panicked about relegations and the possibility of being bumped down to the Challenger scene a couple of weeks back, and as bigger investors move into the scene, the stakes get higher and higher.

Let s go over what exactly inspired this controversy before we talk about the developments and fallout, because it s crucial to understand what s on the line. While the spectacle and wonder of the LCS goes off without a hitch, most teams are losing money. In the case of teams like the Immortals or Echo Fox, they know they re losing money, and that s part of the gamble. These teams are working to pick up sponsors and fanbases, hoping that as the scene grows, they can make their investment back.

There are a few problems with this model. One, teams can lose everything through relegations. Two, teams currently don t have many ways to make a profit. Riot pays out a stipend that has only increased to allow for coaches, sponsors are hesitant to buy into a system where many ways for them to advertise themselves are prohibited, and teams are forced to work on content creation and other methods of income, which increases burnout and puts an undue burden on teams to work hard or risk becoming financially unviable. Christopher MonteCristo Mykles produced an excellent video that dives into all of these issues in detail.

Ignition

Despite these problems, the League community was overall pretty happy. People were excited for the Baker Pantheon skin and the Yorick rework. The current debate sprung up when TSM s Andy Reginald Dinh gave an interview with William Scarra Li. The interview inspired discussion about pre-tournament patches: there have been the recent lane swap changes, and the Juggernaut class update that predated Worlds. Reginald was openly critical of Riot on multiple fronts: their patch strategy, player burnout, and incoming revenue. It s a fascinating interview to watch, and it s no surprise that it garnered interest on the League of Legends subreddit.

Here s where things go to hell: Riot co-founder Marc Tryndamere Merrill responded with a comment on the Reddit thread. The original has since been edited, but the original text exists in screenshots. In short, he called Reginald out for investing in other games, underpaying his talent, and overall suggested that the problems with patching could be solved by team owners investing in the right talent, even if some patches had been suboptimal .

Tryndamere s comment has been torn apart, and rightfully so. The original text was glib, rude, and unnecessary. The entire thing had the odd air of an explosion at Thanksgiving dinner between family members who had been suppressing annoyances for far too long. MonteCristo made another in-depth video that takes the comment apart line by line. Reginald has given another articulate response that attacks Tryndamere s points. For a moment, it looked as though the League discourse had turned into a blood sport.

#LCSForever

There was a brief moment where it looked like the finer points of the debate might get lost in ugly comments, memes and the usual troublesome signal-to-noise ratio that pops up around esports dialogue. This was a time when firm and decisive action was needed, and Riot has often been critiqued for their failure to take that action. Tryndamere responded to Reginald, conceding many of his original points, and clarifying the issues. It looked like a frustrating stalemate. Of course we agree on the issues, is an easy thing to say when the entire community is at your throat, and it s all too easy to follow it up with and we ll start working on them. James Obscurica Chen shared these frustrations, advocating for a road map and immediate progress.

#LCSForever was an unpredicted twist, something that could have been pulled from the climax of a Disney movie. Reginald replied with another Twitlonger, this one simply reading:

Marc, I agree that these urgent issues need to be addressed immediately. There is a detailed proposal signed by NA LCS teams and players headed to your inbox today. We'll solve these problems together.

#LCSForever,

Andy

Other team owners and players have all banded together under the #LCSForever hashtag. It was the kind of moment that heroic montage music was made for. HotshotGG stepped up, tweeting in response to Reginald: We've been rivals since the beginning. Glad to join forces to make LCS the best it can be. The leaders of C9, Immortals, Liquid, and Apex all stood up, players cheered, experts wondered what this could herald... it was a storybook moment.

Or was it?

It s painfully easy to be the cynic here, even if that might not be the right call. For so long, the dialogue around esports has been centered around passion. Riot talk about running the LCS and growing esports based out of their love of the game. Even now, in the face of some very authentic and real talk such as the above MonteCristo video discussing caster pay and NME s Robert "Chachi" Stemmler s long look at how NME struggled with the LCS, the conversation has been steered back towards passion and optimism.

Riot is a massive company with multiple departments who have all contributed to the current issues. When (or if, if you re a skeptic) change comes, it ll need to go through that same complex system. The NA LCS may benefit, but what of the EU LCS? How long will it take for change to go through, and how much will the process dilute it?

I don't know if Duke Nukem Forever is really as bad as the legend that's sprung up around it makes out, but it sure wasn't good. Which is probably why, aside from a little spat with 3D Realms and Interceptor over what eventually became Bombshell (with a heavy emphasis on the bomb, as it turns out), Gearbox has been content to let the franchise lie quietly for the past half-decade. But that may be about to change.

Point yourself at dukenukem.com, lie to the age gate, and you'll be confronted with a Happy 20th Anniversary banner Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996 a Coming Soon warning, and a countdown that's currently got eight days and change left on the clock. That puts zero hour at 8:30 pm ET on September 2, a date that means... [Update: I originally pegged it at September 1 but it's been pointed out to me that I got it wrong, and September 2 is in fact a date of significance. Gearbox is holding a panel at PAX West that day, which surely can't be a coincidence. The panel is scheduled to run from 4-5 pm PT, while the timer will run out at 5:30 pm PT, so presumably we'll find out what's happening a little bit before it goes live.]

Also of note: The Duke Nukem Facebook page has suddenly come back to life with its first new post since 2012, and a Duke Nukem Twitter account has appeared. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is currently bantering with it.

The King is back. Line up, ladies. pic.twitter.com/jiyifNvWzLAugust 24, 2016

There's no guarantee that all of this will end in the announcement of a new game: We could be looking at Duke Nukem Forever DLC, or DNF Gold, or a Duke Anthology of some sort. But that's awfully unlikely. This a lot of effort, relatively speaking, for anything less than a new game reveal, especially since that's so obviously what people are going to expect. I've reached out to Gearbox to ask about what's going on, and while I don't imagine I'll hear back why would they blow their own countdown? I'll let you know if I do.

(Final thing: I couldn't get the site to load properly in Firefox, only in Chrome, so if you run into a you cannot view this website message after entering your birthdate, switch browsers.)

The premise of Dead by Daylight is brilliant. An asymmetric online multiplayer horror game in which four players take the role of the survivors, aiming to escape, and one person plays as the killer intent on brutally murdering them. It plays on so many 80s horror film tropes that fans of the genre will feel like they re putting on some comfortable, yet grim, slippers.

There s a surprising amount of depth to it. There are different types of killers and survivors, each with their own skills and special abilities. The skill tree is called the Bloodweb and there is one per character, by unlocking skills the player can progress through the web. Skills and abilities depend on the character and can give you anything from a quicker chainsaw to additional beartrap.

As a survivor the only way to escape the horror is to start all the generators and open the gates. This is trickier than it sounds. Starting a generator takes a long time and requires a number of quick time events, messing these up creates a loud bang that will be sure to attract the attention of the killer. The killer cannot be killed themselves, but can be slowed by pulling down parts of the environment, vaulting through windows and running away. While survivors can quickly leap through openings in buildings with ease, the killer is a slow and lumbering nemesis. If you re quiet you can also hide in closets, tall grass, and behind things.

Working together, survivors create distractions, heal people, help them escape from the killer s clutches, and start generators together to get the job done faster. Planning a tactical co-operative effort is difficult when you re not conversing with your fellow players, but opportunistic cooperation has its benefits. Of course you don t have to work with your teammates. It can also be an effective tactic to let the killer deal with them while you make a sneaky exit. The possibility of betrayal means that you can t rely on following a preconceived plan.

As a survivor you can survey the area in third person. As the killer you are restricted to first person, but you see the noises the survivors make. You can also be notified of their presence through wildlife fleeing, generators making noise, or injured survivors grunting in pain or leaving trails of blood. The most effective way of murdering is to stick them on a meat hook and sacrifice them to your dark lord.

I often found myself holding my breath while playing. Dead by Daylight does create some of the tensest moments I ve ever encountered in a game. The use of sound deserves a special mention. When the killer gets closer your character s heartbeat quickens and gets louder any little noise can trigger a reaction.

However Dead by Daylight is not without its faults. It feels unpolished. It doesn t look great, the textures and colours are all very muddy (not always intentionally) and indistinct. The animations can snap into place and look awkward. At one point the killer moved past me at a much quicker speed than his lumbering animation suggested, creating a pretty funny effect that broke the tension. Sometimes as the survivor you ll get stuck in the standing position instead of going into the starting a generator animation. Whenever I was the killer and picked up one of my victims their body was glitching in and out of my field of vision in a way that made it very difficult to see, yet I could also somehow occasionally see through them. The range of the killer s weapon is temperamental. At one point you ll be striking a survivor with ease, reaching through a window, the next you ll struggle to hit them when they re at your feet.

There are occasions when the frame rate will noticeably stutter, and issues with online connections occurred frequently. It was difficult to tell if this was another player s poor connection or an issue with the game as a whole. Looking through forums, it appeared to be a fairly common problem.

While some people may enjoy hours of entertaining tension in Dead by Daylight, I think the vast majority of players will struggle to find much longevity in the game in its current state. Very similar looking environments, and repetitive objectives eventually take their toll. I soon started to get tired of starting up generators and finding gates.

After trawling through the online communities the consensus with many fans is that it should have stayed in beta for longer to fix issues. I can completely sympathise with this feeling. At its very core the game is excellent, there's huge tactical potential and the atmosphere is brilliantly tense. However, bugs, online issues and the poor graphics and overall look of the game mean that it falls short. In its current state it feels too unpolished. So either wait for sale, or wait for a few more patches from developers so you get a slicker horror experience.

Work on D-Pad Studio s retro-styled indie sidescrolling platformer Owlboy began in 2007 long before the indie renaissance , for want of a less-hackneyed term, of recent years, and long before Steam and other distribution platforms were filled with games that aesthetically mirror yesteryear. It ll finally release this Fall , its developers have announced, and will nail down an exact date at PAX West next week.

Within a pixel art-infused two dimensional open-world, you assume the role of the half owl/half boy Otus in a journey which sees you battling sky pirates and traversing monster-infested ruins, among other treacherous encounters, relying on help from your non-flying gunner friends.

Besides its lovely-looking although now slightly well-worn appearance, one thing which stands out is how Owlboy approaches flight mechanics. Otus can take to the skies without tiring, without timers, without restriction so long as there s room above to allow it.

Explore a vibrantly crafted pixel world in this flying adventure platformer, explains the game s Steam page description. Being a mute, Otus struggles living up to the expectations of owl-hood. Things spiral from bad to worse with the sudden appearance of sky pirates.

The first Owlboy demo launched way back in 2011, and a release was planned later that year. When I spoke briefly to D-Pad s Jo-Remi Madsen towards the end of 2014 he told me they d since redesigned the entire game from the ground up, but reckoned it d still release before the end of that year. It s taken an extra couple of years, but it seems Owlboy is finally ready to fly the coop.

During that same conversation, Madsen explained why protagonist Otus cannot speak. Most games, especially the Nintendo ones, always have character that doesn t speak, or they want you to feel like you re the character that s why they don t speak.

"In Owlboy, Otus is an actual mute. He can t really defend himself, you re supposed to be this kind of vulnerable character, that s why you get these gunners or helpers, that you kind of depend on to play through the game you must work together to get by.

A concrete launch date for Owlboy is expected to be made at PAX West next week.

Behind Cities: Skylines sophisticated updates and real-world projects lies a dedicated community of modders. From the sublime to the ridiculous, it s an ever-burgeoning group who never seems short of ideas something Colossal Order and Paradox appear to have taken note of in the game s latest DLC.

The Content Creator Pack: Art Deco is the city-builder's next incoming expansion and is a collection of modder Matt Shroomblaze Crux s work. Paradox will publish the add-on at 3.99/$4.99 and will share the benefits from the pack s sales with the content creator, as well as offering an initial payment to cover the cost of production.

As the title suggests, Crux s original creations (some of which are featured below) include a range of Deco-inspired buildings, however future Content Creator packs will highlight the work and different styles of other intuitive modders.

After over 3,400 hours in Cities: Skylines, it s wonderful to have my own buildings become part of the game s landscape, says Crux himself. Because the Art Deco era is so highly regarded as one of the best building styles of history, I think it needs to be represented as such.

"I made the suggestion to Paradox Interactive and they allowed me to come up with the buildings of my choice. I m eager to see what the rest of the community thinks of them.

Finally, a Sonic joke in Deus Ex. Truly, this is the best time in history to be playing games. And it doesn t stop there; Mankind Divided is hiding a ton of Easter eggs in Prague, calling up everything from old memes to old politicians. Players are still digging them up, but here are some of the coolest ones found so far.

Once you've had your fill of hardboiled Easter eggs, check out the rest of our Deus Ex: Mankind Divided coverage. Read our review if you're on the edge, check out our beginners guide if you're overwhelmed, our performance guide if you want a few more frames, and our class guide to optimize your Jensen.

Knuckles & Knuckles & Knuckles

Source: /r/DeusEx

In the Deus Ex universe, Sonic presumably exists. That, or Knuckles exists, and they're working through an evident creative block trying to think him up. I'm a bit lost when it comes to the context of the Knuckles and Knuckles joke, but it's a callback to a popular YouTube video, in which Knuckles gets his due in song form. You'll find this one in Prague's posh consumer electronics shop, but you can't play it unfortunately.

PC Geek magazine looks a bit familiar...

We're not totally on board with some of PC Geek's design (that font), but we like where their heart is at. You can find the PC Gamer approximation in the shops strewn about Prague. Cabled, meanwhile, is an obvious reference to Wired.

A confusing Human Revolution cameo

I think Primer made more sense than this. Found in buried in a crate in the basement of an antique shop next to the police station in Prague, this bizarre Easter egg is essentially a confirmation that the next Deus Ex will be a wacky time-traveling adventure. Jensen and a scrappy teen, sneaking through the Wild West and feudal Japan a guaranteed hit.

Portal's Weighted Companion Cube

The antique shop basement is spilling over with references to other games, and most prominent is the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. I like to imagine it escaped Aperture Science safely and chose to live out it days in a more comfortable underground base.

Some extremely rad roaches

I know, cockroaches aren't enough to make me think they're an Easter egg on their lonesome, but located in the same basement as a ton of other videogame props, my mind goes straight to Fallout. The first time I saw them, I instinctually hit my V.A.T.S. button before realizing my mistake.

A bleak future (with good games)

Click through the gallery to see them all.

A few more references are littered throughout the antique shop basement in the form of game boxes (remember those?). The original Hitman has been left to rot on the floor, Tomb Raider is hiding behind a table leg, and Soul Reaver gets the royal treatment up top. It's a nice indication that despite everything technology related going to hell, at least there are some decent games in Deus Ex's sad future.

Ritt Momney makes an appearance

Source: /r/DeusEx

If you see a familiar face in a newspaper early on in Mankind Divided, trust your gut and look at little closer. Yeah, it's what appears to be a photoshopped Mitt Romney smiling wide and sporting a slightly grayer cynic-cyberpunk look. Reddit user Depressed Cartoonist figured it out after finding the original pictureand comparing the two. I guess, in Deus Ex's version of the future, history really does repeat itself. It just gets a new haircut and specs before coming back around.

A Bladerunner cameo speaks up in the OST

Source: /r/DeusEx

Reddit user wayoffthegrid was jamming out to the Mankind Divided OST sampler, and noticed a short, subtle sample from Bladerunner. At 23 seconds into "Adam's Safehouse," they noticed the line "Do you like our owl?" popped up under the guise of reverb in the background. Watch the video above to see the original line from the movie and try to find it for yourself.

And surely, more secrets have yet to be uncovered. If you find any, be sure to point them out in the comments.

For the moment No Man's Sky holds the title for the biggest launch on Steam of 2016. 212,620 people were playing it simultaneously on launch day, according to Steam Stats, putting it far ahead of everything else to come out this year. But it's subsequently suffered a tremendous fall-off, shedding 88 percent of its concurrent user count in less than two weeks. That sounds like a lot, but is it?

If you look at this Reddit discussion of No Man's Sky's decline, you'll see plenty of eager grave dancing. One poster notes that even the infamous bomb Aliens: Colonial Marines only saw a concurrent user loss of 85 percent over its first month of release. "The only way to keep people playing at this point is to make it free," another poster said, claiming that he was bored after a single day; a third, riffing on the apparently-failed promise of being able to meet other players in space, added, "Players sure as heck aren't going to be running into each other now."

SteamSpy and SteamDB help us take a closer look at the data: No Man's Sky peak concurrent player count on August 11 was 212,604; on August 22, it was 25,689. Hourly concurrent players are similarly down, from a high of 127,224 on August 14 to 22,852 on August 23. That's a hell of a drop, but it comes with some caveats: It doesn't reflect the total population of the game but rather the number of people playing it simultaneously, and that measurement of intensity of interest is bound to drop as a game's newness wears off and players become less likely to sink 14 hours at a time into it.

But compared to other, better-received recent releases, NMS may not be cratering as badly as it appears. Far Cry Primal, for instance, saw its peak player count slide 82 percent over its first month of release; Fallout 4 dropped by 74 percent; Doom fell by 85 percent; Battleborn slid by 82 percent; Stellaris dropped by 82 percent; even The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which we recently placed atop our Top 100 Games list, saw its peak player count slide by 71 percent during its first month of release. The hugely popular Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain slipped by an almost identical amount. One notable exception is Stardew Valley, which saw its peak user count slip by just 30 percent over its first month.

So although No Man's Sky has tailed off faster than other big games, it's not too far outside the normal decay that recent blockbusters seem to experience. Arguably it's a larger drop in concurrent players than you'd expect for a game that promised virtually endless hours of open-ended exploration 18 quintillion planets and all that. A single-player shooter with a ten-hour campaign is obviously going to see a more precipitous drop in its peak player count than an open-world RPG with 127 side quests waiting to be cleaned up. And that really speaks to what we found in our review: 45 hours of gameplay yielded 200 planets, 500 new species, and a dearth of interesting stories. When the core of your game is discovery, you'd better have some cool stuff to discover.

It's arguable that the huge launch of No Man's Sky made the corresponding fall-off inevitable, and it's also worth bearing in mind that none of this touches on the PS4 version of the game. But as a case study in hype, expectations, and disappointment, I have no doubt that we'll be talking about No Man's Sky, and its fallout, for a long time to come.