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Valve Corporation t/a Steam said they provided a store and distribution service for third-party computer games, on which they allowed developers to post videos and descriptions of their games on pages devoted to those games. Developers were responsible for the content of their games, marketing materials describing the games (including screenshots, narratives and videos), and establishing the game price. With the exception of games published by Valve themselves, neither Valve nor Steam wrote marketing copy for games hosted on the service. They explained that they had a refund policy, under which customers could seek refunds for games that had been played for less than two hours in the first 14 days after purchase. Valve said they had consulted with Hello Games, who would provide information in relation to the complaint.
Hello Games said that, unlike most other games, each part of ‘No Man’s Sky’ (NMS) was procedurally generated rather than manually developed. This meant that the game content was generated by way of a computer process as that content was encountered by the player. This computer process embodied algorithms that determined, for example, the probability of a player encountering a creature with a particular physiology, exhibiting a particular behaviour or existing in a particular habitat. They said the game contained 18 quintillion planets, each with its own terrain, weather, flora and fauna, and was effectively infinite in size or scope. It was unique, therefore, in that the user experience was not scripted and each user would have their own individual experience. Each player would begin the game on a unique planet, in a different part of the universe.
Hello Games said that, as each user’s experience would be very different, it would be difficult to recreate the exact scenes from the ad. However, they believed it was fairly straightforward to locate content of the type shown in the ad and to demonstrate that such content was commonly experienced by all users who played NMS for an average period of time. They stated that all material features from the ad that had been challenged by complainants appeared in the NMS universe in abundance. While each player experienced different parts of the NMS universe, there was a low probability that anyone playing the game as intended would fail to encounter all these features in some form within an average play-through. They said the game itself was documentary evidence in support of the ad and, since NMS was specifically programmed to enable players to experience everything described in the ad, they were confident that any average player could do so. They noted that some elements were rarer than others; for instance, the larger the scale of a space battle, the more unusual it was, which they believed was to be expected because it made for a more rewarding experience. With regard to the game features queried by complainants, Hello Games provided gameplay footage showing these features, which they explained showed extracts from NMS on a PC with average specifications; these specifications were given. The majority of the footage provided came from a play-through that had started from the beginning of the game and lasted for four hours. They also provided links to third party footage uploaded to a video-sharing platform by players of NMS, and a copy of the game.
In relation to the user interface design and aiming systems, Hello Games stated that the appearance of these functions (but not the way they operated) had been amended since the videos were created. They did not believe the appearance of these game elements was material.
Hello Games said that, unlike most other games, each part of ‘No Man’s Sky’ (NMS) was procedurally generated rather than manually developed. This meant that the game content was generated by way of a computer process as that content was encountered by the player. This computer process embodied algorithms that determined, for example, the probability of a player encountering a creature with a particular physiology, exhibiting a particular behaviour or existing in a particular habitat. They said the game contained 18 quintillion planets, each with its own terrain, weather, flora and fauna, and was effectively infinite in size or scope. It was unique, therefore, in that the user experience was not scripted and each user would have their own individual experience. Each player would begin the game on a unique planet, in a different part of the universe.
Hello Games said that, as each user’s experience would be very different, it would be difficult to recreate the exact scenes from the ad. However, they believed it was fairly straightforward to locate content of the type shown in the ad and to demonstrate that such content was commonly experienced by all users who played NMS for an average period of time. They stated that all material features from the ad that had been challenged by complainants appeared in the NMS universe in abundance. While each player experienced different parts of the NMS universe, there was a low probability that anyone playing the game as intended would fail to encounter all these features in some form within an average play-through. They said the game itself was documentary evidence in support of the ad and, since NMS was specifically programmed to enable players to experience everything described in the ad, they were confident that any average player could do so. They noted that some elements were rarer than others; for instance, the larger the scale of a space battle, the more unusual it was, which they believed was to be expected because it made for a more rewarding experience. With regard to the game features queried by complainants, Hello Games provided gameplay footage showing these features, which they explained showed extracts from NMS on a PC with average specifications; these specifications were given. The majority of the footage provided came from a play-through that had started from the beginning of the game and lasted for four hours. They also provided links to third party footage uploaded to a video-sharing platform by players of NMS, and a copy of the game.
In relation to the user interface design and aiming systems, Hello Games stated that the appearance of these functions (but not the way they operated) had been amended since the videos were created. They did not believe the appearance of these game elements was material.
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