No Man’s Sky Wins a GDC Award, Nobody Shows Up To Accept It


Talk about awkward… Hello Games, the developers of No Man’s Sky, had no one present in the crowd at the GDC awards show this year even though they were nominated for the Innovation Award.

Credit: Hello Games

The team was out eating dinner instead. According to a tweet from Innes McKendrick, the code lead for No Man’s Sky, the team was actually out at a restaurant, enjoying their meal and talking about how they DEFINITELY wouldn’t win an award that night.

Credit: Hello Games

To be fair, No Man’s Sky has been absolutely dragged by critics and consumers alike, with a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam (only 31% of Steam reviews were positive) and a 6.0/10.0 from IGN, who also called the game “dull.”

It was regarded as one of the biggest critical flops in video game history- it was expected to leave the GDC awards without a title to its name, so it makes sense that the devs wouldn’t bother staying for the show when there’s food to be eaten.

Hyper Light Drifter, Winner of Excellence in Visual Art and Audience Award in the Indie Category
Credit: Heart Machine

At the GDC awards, major titles like Overwatch (Design Award and GOTY) and Battlefield 1 (Audience Award) won big. Cult-status indie games like Hyper Light Drifter and Quadrilateral Cowboy also took home two awards each from the indie category.