No Man’s Sky May Be Delayed INDEFINITELY

http://www.thegamerholics.com/
Uh-oh, it looks like No Man’s Sky is having (another) issues before the big release, and it seems like they can’t catch a break. First they had to push it back because they needed more time work on the game (which is understandable with a small team of 15), and Sean Murray from Hello Games got death threats because of that; then they got sued by Sky TV for using the word Sky, and now they might be in big trouble for patent infringement.

Basically, a Dutch company by the name of Genicap is alleging that Hello Games used their ‘Superformula’ unlawfully; Genicap then went on to say that Hello Games hasn’t properly licensed the use of their Superformula, and will need to do so before the game launches.

“We haven’t provided a license to Hello Games,” said Genicap’s Jeroen Sparrow. “We don’t want to stop the launch, but if the formula is used we’ll need to have a talk.”

Genicap hasn’t actually seen the code, or how deep the so-called ‘infringement’ really is, but Sean Murray (Hello Games Founder/Creator) has admitted to using the code to build the base of No Man’s Sky with the Gielis Superformula- the same formula that is integral to No Man’s Sky itself. According to the New Yorker, the Gielis Superformula was created in 2003 by Belgian plant geneticist Johan Gielis. After developing the formula, Professor Johan Gielis took his findings to Genicap, and is still a member of the company. If you have no idea what the Gielis Superformula is, it’s basically a math equation to make perfect circles- which is (apparently) rather difficult to even do so, and Genicap is alleging that Hello Games isn’t licensed to even use said code.

“The basis is the Superformula, a single equation that uses only a few variables to create an infinite number of supershapes. It became also known as the Gielis formula (Generalized Intrinsic & Extrinsic Lengths in Submanifolds). THE GIELIS FORMULA provides a direct geometrical description and relation between circles and squares, flowers and snowflakes, molecules and space-time, sounds and vision, anything and everything.” -Gencap Superformula

Murray told the New Yorker this:

“One of the hardest things for us to do is to create coherent shapes. This sounds ridiculous, but it is hard to find a formula that you can rely on”, and the author of the article even said that, “the Superformula appeared reliable,” while underlining exactly how the Superformula helped the studio envision their dream, adding further evidence that Murray used the code for his game.

I can understand not having something as reliable but, this doesn’t look good for Hello Games, at all. We have no idea how much the code was even tweaked (or if it was at all). There’s too many variables out there to make a substantial judgment on it, but if the case goes to court, we will find out how far it’s been tweaked, or if they even used the whole code.

Genicap did say that they tried to contact Hello games, to no avail- “We are in the process of creating a game based on the Superformula. It would be great if we could trade knowledge with Hello Games. We tried to contact them but didn’t get any response,” said Genicap’s Jerome Sparrow.
It looks like Hello Games is in quite the pickle, and the No Man’s Sky could be delayed indefinitely– which is really disheartening to all of us gamers. We were really looking forward to an infinite universe in which we could explore indefinitely.

I know that No Man’s Sky might once again be delayed, or not even come out at this rate, but I don’t know what to personally think about this whole ordeal and would like to know your thoughts on it. Let me know in the comments below.