Hello Games

Hello Games is a developer and publisher.

Hello Games Webpage, Facebook

Hello Games is a British independent development studio founded in 2008. The company is based in Guildford, Surrey, in the United Kingdom. The studio is led by Irish-born Sean Murray, who previously worked at Kuju Entertainment and Criterion, where he co-created games such as Burnout 3: Takedown and Black. Along with Murray, the team includes about a dozen employees, most of whom bring experience from large game studios. As an independent developer, Hello Games serves as the publisher for all of its productions.

History

Joe Danger

Hello Games was founded in February 2008 by Sean Murray and Grant Duncan, bringing together a team of experienced developers with backgrounds at companies such as Kuju Entertainment, Criterion, and Electronic Arts. The studio's debut production, released in 2010, was the humorous 2.5D arcade game Joe Danger, for which Hello Games received the Best New Studio and Micro Studio awards from the British magazine Develop. In September 2010, The Guardian included the founders in its list of the hundred most innovative companies.

No Man's Sky

Over the next few years, the arcade game Joe Danger got a full sequel and several mobile spin-offs. Hello Games became widely known for its sci-fi sandbox No Man's Sky, launched in August 2016, which drew major interest during production thanks to its innovative technical solutions. Despite a massive flood that ruined most of the studio's equipment, accusations regarding the patented super formula, and a pointless lawsuit with Sky Television over its name, the game's popularity was unaffected.

Even though the most recent game sold well at first, it quickly became clear that many pre-release promises, especially the multiplayer mode, had not been fulfilled. Because of this, players quickly lost interest in the game.

Still, the Hello Games team didn't give up and got back to work. In November, the game received its first significant update with new gameplay features, and the next update was released in March 2017. Patch 1.3 arrived in August, introducing thirty additional hours of story and the first multiplayer features, allowing the game to slowly win back players' appreciation.

In July 2018, No Man's Sky launched on Xbox One, accompanied by the extensive NEXT update, which introduced a full-fledged multiplayer mode for up to four players. Soon after, the game once again ranked among the most popular titles. Hello Games, however, did not rest on its laurels; at the end of October, the studio released another patch that greatly expanded ocean exploration. In the following months, additional patches were released, focusing primarily on new content, though the developers also occasionally improved the graphics. Additionally, in November 2020, No Man's Sky was released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and in October 2022, the title also debuted on the Nintendo Switch.

The Last Campfire

In the meantime, in August 2020, Hello Games released a much smaller project for players. We are talking about the adventure puzzle game The Last Campfire, which was released on PC, consoles, and mobile devices. The title was very warmly received by both players ("overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam) and industry media - according to Metacritic, its average rating was between 80-86/100 depending on the platform.

Light No Fire

Apart from that, the studio quietly worked on its next major project. Though no details were shared at the time, Sean Murray teased in April 2022 that the team's next project was "so ambitious that even with a thousand people, it would still seem impossible to make".

In December 2023, the studio unveiled previously hidden details and released the first trailer for Light No Fire, its new third-person action-adventure game. This time, the developers chose to take players to a fantasy universe, offering an entire procedurally generated planet that can be explored on foot or on the backs of winged creatures. When it was announced, the game was still in early development, requiring fans of Hello Games to wait patiently.