Did No Man's Sky's Developers Steal Superformula?

General news News 07/21/2016

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Superformula, a program code, is the latest „argument” around No Man’s Sky – a Dutch company believes that Hello Games stole the formula.

After a three-year fight with UK’s BSkyB media conglomerate about using the word Sky in the title, Hello Games is „at it” again: according to Dutch Telegraaf, Genicap owns Superformula, which is an essential thing behind the procedural planetary generation. Genicap believes that Hello Games does not own a license to use the formula.

According to Jeroen Sparrow, a Genicap-employee, they will not stop the game from releasing, but they will want to have a few words with the devs – this didn’t happen up to now. Apparently, Genicap is also working on a game using this formula, and they would appreciate if „they could trade knowledge with Hello Games.”

The twist: Genicap hasn’t seen the source code of No Man’s Sky, although Sean Murray did admit that the procedural planetary creation was an issue earlier until he found Superformula, published in 2003. As its creator, Johan Gielis is Chief Research Officer at Genicap (as well as a member of the directors’ board), why would have Murray talked about Superformula so openly if they didn’t have a license already?

The story will probably continue. Hopefully, the Genicap–Hello Games argument won’t result in yet another delay.

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Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)