I just want to explain some errors in this.
1. Hello Games were not the ones responsible for this. When that first trailer released, they didn’t want to show it. They knew the trailer didn’t match the game, and they wanted at least six more months before a trailer release. The Publisher, Sony, basically gave them the ultimatum of “Show the trailer or we scrap the whole project”
2. All of those features that were promised but aren’t in the game? Also not Hello Games fault. A year ago they said they didn’t think the game would be ready for another 2-3 years, that there was so much stuff people wanted in it that they felt they should add before they could release it. Also, multiplayer wasn’t even something they planned on, and they never said it would be in the game. The game was even listed on Steam as a single player game, it has never been advertised as multiplayer. The only multiplayer feature advertised was that when a player names things, those names are online and everyone can see them. That’s it. So, again, not Hello Games fault, Sony gave them another “Do this now or we scrap the project” ultimatum.
3. A lot of features people claim were advertised that weren’t in the game were never advertised in the first place. People took things said by people with absolutely no official ties to the game as fact. so many things people expected were never actually things at all. They were things mentioned by live streamers and gaming news channels as features that could possibly exist based on the 20 minutes of footage that existed. They were theories that fans took as facts.
Now, I’m not saying the game wasn’t awful, what I’m saying is the fans aren’t the only ones getting screwed over by this. Hello Games was an indie company trying their best, and a shitty publisher gave them impossible deadlines, made them show footage that didn’t match the actual product and forced the game out before it was ready.
Sony took what should have been an amazing game for 2018-2019, and forced it to be a shitty game now instead. And because of that, those developers, who quit their jobs at huge companies to do this, will probably not be able to work in the industry anymore. Hell, pretty sure one of them is homeless, since the project lead sold his house to start the project.
This is not Hello Games fault, this is Sony’s fault, they were the ones in charge of advertising, they were the ones forcing out false trailers and telling lies about the game, not Hello Games.