Shahid Kamal Ahmad, a former Sony Executive who recently went indie (he is now the Director of Ultimatum Games and working on an unannounced video game backed by Tesseract Interactive, according to his LinkedIn page), published a series of tweets yesterday defending Hello Games' Sean Murray.
As we all know, Murray and the development team as a whole received a significant backlash after the release of No Man's Sky. The highly anticipated indie game launched for PlayStation 4 and PC in August 2016 but after the initial hype, there was a tremendous amount of refund requests due to the game's unfulfilled promises.
The former Sony Executive, who worked as Senior Business Development Manager and Director of Strategic Content before leaving the company, defended Murray saying that he was "crucified by so many who don't know him" and that he has "more talent, vision, drive and termination than all the hateful mob together".
People jumping to conclusions about the character of a friend of mine and who threw him under the bus of their large audiences can fuck off.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
And I think we all know exactly who I’m talking about. He told me about the update plan in 2013 and has stuck to his bargain.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
Crucified by so many who don’t know him, he has more talent, vision, drive, determination and chutzpah than the entire hateful mob together
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
He then turned his attention to "turncoats", adding that Murray and the rest of Hello Games just kept working on No Man's Sky rather than doing vacations as pictured by some.
The people who really disappoint me are those who should know better and who just turned their backs.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
The turncoats are scum. I’d rather be poor and disgraced than be a dirty back turning scumbag when a friend and colleague needs support.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
It’s not like he or his colleagues were on holiday or buying cars and shit. They were *killing* themselves to make something new.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
It seems like Ahmad was mostly referring to critics. These tweets embedded below, where he criticizes the new category of "unprofessional critics", are particularly telling.
On the Parkinson show years ago I heard Roger Moore say “Those can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can do neither become critics” 1/2
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
I wonder what he would have made of the current generation of despicable trolls on the Internet who sent us to fascism in a hand basket? 2/2
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
I’m not naming anyone. The problem is not the criticism, but how uninformed and spiteful it all is.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
me neither. My point was more about emphasising the new category of unprofessional “critics” who don’t deserve that mantle.
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
professional or otherwise formally trained journalists don’t make that category error
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) November 27, 2016
This comes just after Hello Games released the massive Foundation 1.1 update for No Man's Sky. There are now three different rule sets to choose from: Normal mode is the one you're already accustomed to, while Creative Mode allows players to explore the universe without limits, and build a huge base; Survival mode, on the other hand, changes the game through a much more challenging "endurance experience".
According to Hello Games, this is just the first in a series of free updates coming to No Man's Sky. Did you try the Foundation update yet and if so, how much did it improve the game in your opinion?
Let us know in the comments.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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