No Man's Sky
2016 video game / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in November 2020, for Nintendo Switch in October 2022, and for macOS in June 2023. The game is built around five pillars: exploration, survival, combat, trading, and base building. Players can engage with the entirety of a procedurally generated deterministic open world universe, which includes over 18 quintillion planets. Through the game's procedural generation system, planets have their own ecosystems with unique forms of flora and fauna, and various alien species may engage the player in combat or trade within planetary systems. Players advance in the game by mining for resources to power and improve their equipment, buying and selling resources using credits earned by documenting flora and fauna or trading with the aforementioned lifeforms, building planetary bases and expanding space fleets, or otherwise following the game's overarching plot by seeking out the mystery around the entity known as The Atlas.
No Man's Sky | |
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Developer(s) | Hello Games |
Publisher(s) | Hello Games[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] |
Producer(s) | Will Braham |
Designer(s) | Gareth Bourn |
Programmer(s) |
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Artist(s) |
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Composer(s) |
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Platform(s) | |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure, survival |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer[lower-alpha 4] |
Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, wanted to create a game that captured the sense of exploration and optimism of science fiction writings and art of the 1970s and 1980s. The game was developed over three years by a small team at Hello Games with promotional and publishing help from Sony Interactive Entertainment. The gaming media saw this as an ambitious project for a small team, and Murray and Hello Games drew significant attention leading to its release.
No Man's Sky received mixed reviews at its 2016 launch, with some critics praising the technical achievements of the procedurally generated universe, while others considered the gameplay lackluster and repetitive. However, the critical response was marred by the lack of several features that had been reported to be in the game, particularly multiplayer capabilities. The game was further criticised due to Hello Games' lack of communication in the months following the launch, creating a hostile backlash from some of its players. Murray stated later that Hello Games had failed to control hype around the game and the larger-than-expected player count at launch, and since have taken an approach of remaining quiet about updates to the game until they are nearly ready to release. The promotion and marketing for No Man's Sky became a subject of debate and has been cited as an example of what to avoid in video game marketing.
Since the game's initial release, Hello Games has continued to improve and expand No Man's Sky to achieve the vision of the experience they wanted to build. The game has received a plethora of free major content updates that have added several previously missing features, such as multiplayer components while adding features like surface vehicles, base-building, space fleet management, cross-platform play, and virtual reality support. This has substantially improved No Man's Sky's overall reception, with multiple websites citing it as one of the greatest redemption stories in the gaming industry.[5][6][7]
No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game played from a first or third person perspective that allows players to engage in five principal activities: exploration, survival, combat, trading and base building. [8] The player takes the role of a specimen of alien humanoid planetary explorer, known in-game as the Traveller, in an uncharted universe. They start on a randomized planet near a crashed spacecraft towards the edge of the galaxy and are equipped with a survival exosuit with a jetpack, and a "multitool" that can be used to scan, mine and collect resources as well as to attack or defend oneself from creatures and hostile forces. The player can collect, repair, and refuel the craft, allowing them to travel about the planet, between other planets and space stations in the local planetary system, engage in space combat with alien factions, or make hyperspace jumps to other star systems.[9] While the game is open-ended, the player may follow the guidance of the entity known as The Atlas to head toward the centre of the galaxy.[10]
The defining feature of No Man's Sky is that nearly all parts of the galaxy, including stars, planets, flora and fauna on these planets, and sentient alien encounters, are created through procedural generation using deterministic algorithms and random number generators from a single seed number. This 64-bit value leads to there being over 18 quintillion[lower-alpha 5] (1.8×1019) planets to explore within the game.[11] Very little data is stored on the game's servers, as all elements of the game are created through deterministic calculations when the player is near them, assuring that other players will see the same elements as another player by travelling to the same location in the galaxy. The player may make temporary changes on planets, such as mining resources, but these changes are not tracked once the player leaves that vicinity.[12][13] Until July 2020, the game used different servers for each platform versions; following a July 2020 patch, cross-platform play was enabled for all supported platforms.[14]
Through exploration, the player is credited with units, the in-game currency, by scanning planets, alien bases, flora and fauna in their travels.[15][16] If the player is first to discover one of these, they can earn additional units by uploading this information to The Atlas, as well as having their name credited with the discovery to be seen by other players. Players have the opportunity to rename these features at this point within limits set by a content filter.[17][18] No Man's Sky can be played offline, but interaction with The Atlas requires online connectivity.[10][12]
The player must assure the survival of the Traveller, as many planets have dangerous atmospheres such as extreme temperatures, toxic gases, and dangerous storms.[17] Though the player can seek shelter at alien bases or caves, these environments will wear away at the exosuit's hazard protection module and can kill the Traveller, thus the player must collect resources necessary for survival. By collecting blueprints, the player can use resources to craft upgrades to their exosuit, multitool, and spacecraft to make survival easier, with several of these upgrades working in synergistic manners to improve the survivability and capabilities of the Traveller.[9] Each of these elements have a limited number of slots for both upgrades and resource space, requiring the player to manage their inventories and feature sets, though the player can either gain new slots for the exosuit or purchase new ships and multitools with more slots.[19] The player may also buy additional slots for their starship or use storage augmentations. Many features of the exosuit, multitool, and spacecraft need to be refueled after prolonged use, using collected resources as a fuel source.[20][21]
While on a planet, the Traveller may be attacked by hostile creatures. They also may be attacked by Sentinels, a self-replicating robot force that patrols the planets and takes action against those that take the planet's resources. The player can fend these off using the weapons installed on the multitool. The game uses a "wanted level". Low wanted levels may cause small drones to appear which may be easily fought off, while walking machines, such as the Walker or Quad can assault the player at higher wanted levels.[9][22] While in space, the Traveller may be attacked by pirates seeking their ship's cargo, or by alien factions with whom they have a poor reputation. The player can use the ship's weapon systems to engage in these battles. Should the Traveller die on a planet, they will be respawned at their last save point without their exosuit's inventory; the player can recover these materials if the player can reach the last death location. The player cannot respawn if they are playing on Permadeath mode. If the Traveller dies in space, they will similarly respawn at the local system's space station, but having lost all the goods aboard their ship.[8][15] Again, these goods can be recovered by travelling to the point at which the player died in space, but with the added uncertainty of pirates claiming the goods first.
Most star systems have a space station where the Traveller can trade resources, multitools, and ships, and interact with one or more aliens from three different races that populate the galaxy as well as other travellers. Trading posts planets offer similar functions. Each alien race has its own language, with word-for-word substitutions which initially will be nonsense to the player.[23] By frequent communications with that race, as well as finding monoliths scattered on planets that help in translating, the player can better understand these languages and perform proper actions when interacting with the alien non-player characters, gaining favour from the alien and its race for future trading and combat.[23][24][25] Consequentially, improper responses to aliens may cause them to dislike the Traveller, and their space-bound fleets may attack the Traveller on sight.[26] The game includes a free market galactic store accessible at space stations and trading posts, where some resources and goods have higher values in some systems compared to others, enabling the player to profit on resource gathering and subsequent trade.[10][27]
The game has deep crafting capabilities, allowing players to craft technology upgrades, components for more complex items, tradable resources, base construction parts, food and ammo. Crafting requires blueprints, which are unlocked by digging up data modules and trading them in at space stations. Resources are stored in inventories in the player's exosuit, ship, freighter, exocraft, nutrient processor, and storage containers. Resources can be processed into other resources using refiners or nutrient processors, allowing all kinds of food to be created.
No Man's Sky is primarily designed as a single-player game, though discoveries can be shared to all players via the Steam Workshop, and friends can track each other on the game's galactic map. Hello Games' Sean Murray stated that one might spend about forty hours of game-time to reach the centre of the galaxy if they did not perform any side activities, but he also said that he fully anticipated that players would play the game in a manner that suits them, such as having those that might try to catalogue the flora and fauna in the universe, while others may attempt to set up trade routes between planets.[28] Players can track friends on the galactic map and the system maps.[29] Due to limited multiplayer aspects at launch, Sony did not require PlayStation 4 users to have a PlayStation Plus subscription to play the game online.[30]
2016 | 1.00: Initial release (PC, PS4) |
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1.10: "Foundation Update" | |
2017 | 1.20: "Path Finder Update" |
1.30: "Atlas Rises" | |
2018 | 1.50: "No Man's Sky Next" (XBO) |
1.63: "Exocraft Rework" | |
1.70: "The Abyss" | |
1.75: "Visions" | |
2019 | 2.00: "Beyond" (VR) |
2.20: "Synthesis" | |
2.24: "Bytebeat" | |
2020 | 2.30: "Living Ship" |
2.40: "Exo Mech" | |
2.50: "Crossplay" | |
2.60: "Desolation" | |
3.00: "Origins" | |
3.05: "Halloween Update" | |
3.10: "Next Generation" (PS5, XSX) | |
2021 | 3.20: "Companions" |
3.30: "Expeditions" | |
3.40: "Beachhead Expedition" | |
3.50: "Prisms" | |
3.60: "Frontiers" | |
3.64: "Cartographers Expedition" | |
3.70: "Emergence Expedition" | |
2022 | 3.80: "Sentinel" |
3.83: "Exobiology Expedition" | |
3.85: "Outlaws" & "The Blighted Expedition" | |
3.90: "Leviathan Expedition" | |
3.94: "Endurance" | |
3.97: "Polestar Expedition" | |
4.00: "Waypoint" (Switch) | |
2023 | 4.10: "Fractal" & "Utopia Expedition" (PS VR2) |
4.20: "Interceptor" | |
4.25: "Mac" (MacOS) | |
4.30: "Singularity Expedition" | |
4.40: "Echoes" | |
4.43: "Voyager Expedition" | |
2024 | 4.50: "Omega" & "Omega Expedition" |
4.60: "Orbital" |
Initial post-release updates
A large update released in November 2016, known as the "Foundation Update", added the ability for the player to define a planet as a "home planet", and construct a base on that planet from modular components created from collected resources. Once constructed, the player can then immediately return to their base via teleportation from a space station in the rest of the galaxy. The base supports building special stations, such as research terminals, that can be operated by one of the sentient aliens, which can help to unlock additional base components and blueprints, tend to harvesting flora for resources, and other aspects. The player may opt to tear down the base and relocate to a different home planet at any time. The player can also deploy devices such as automatic mineral drills in the field. The player is able to purchase large starship freighters, which serve both as a space-bound base, with similar base-building and construction options as the planetary base, and as additional storage capacity that collected resources can be transferred.[31]
The Foundation update adds two play modes, with the original gameplay considered as the third, default mode. Survival mode is similar to standard gameplay but the difficulty is much higher—atmospheric effects have a larger impact on the exosuit's armour, alien creatures are more hostile, Sentinels are more alert and deadly, and resources tend to be sparse. If a player should die in Survival mode, they must restart without being able to recover their lost progress, though they still possess their credits, alien language progress, and known blueprints. Creative mode removes much of the mechanics that can kill the player's character and gives them unlimited resources for constructing bases.[31]
A second update released in March 2017, known as the "Path Finder Update", added several new features to the game. Among these included the ability to share bases with other players, as well as new vehicles called exocraft to help in exploration. The exocraft can be built on the player's set home planet and called upon on any other planet. The update also contained a permadeath option that wipes the player's progress completely on death; support for Steam Workshop for user modifications on the Windows version; new base building features and materials, ship and multitool classes and support for PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced graphics.[32][33][34]
A third update, titled "Atlas Rises", was released in August 2017. It includes significant contributions to the game's story mode, added an estimated 30 hours of narrative, and added procedurally generated missions. The player can use portals to quickly transport across the game's galaxy. A limited online cooperative mode, called "Joint Exploration", allows for up to 16 players to explore the same planet and use voice chat and text commands to communicate to others in close proximity, seeing each other as glowing spheres, but otherwise, they cannot directly interact with each other; Hello Games called it an "important first step into the world of synchronous co-op". The update was preceded by several weeks of a "Waking Titan" alternate reality game.[35][36]
Next, Beyond, and further updates
The fourth major update, No Man's Sky Next, was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows on 24 July 2018; this coincided with No Man's Sky's release on Xbox One which included all updates including Next.[37][38] Additionally, the Next update included support for Tencent's WeGame distribution platform in China, which Hello Games says hosts a significant number of No Man's Sky players.[39]
No Man's Sky Next was a significant update that Hello Games considered to be more representative of the game they wanted to release in 2016. The update included a full multiplayer experience, allowing up to four players to create and customize their in-game avatar and to join as allies to explore planets and star systems and build bases together, or as opponents to fight against each other. Bases are no longer limited to specific spots on a planet and now can be built nearly anywhere, including underwater, and such bases are visible to all other players of the game (on their respective platform). Players are able to assemble fleets of starships (called "frigates") to be used to send out on various missions.[citation needed]
The game's engine received a significant overhaul in how planets were procedurally generated as well as how they were rendered to the player.[40] With the expanded multiplayer features, Next required players on consoles to have a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold service subscription to use the multiplayer elements. At launch, the GOG.com version of No Man's Sky Next lacked the multiplayer component,[41] with GOG offering refunds within a limited window for anyone that had bought the game regardless of when that purchase was made.[42]
Following Next, Hello Games stated their plans to be more interactive with the community and provide more frequent updates, including weekly content with special events with community-driven goals that would provide all players with in-game currency to purchase in-game items, but otherwise free to all players and without microtransactions.[43][44] The first such event was launched in late August 2018.[45] Additionally, Hello Games launched the Galactic Atlas, a website that players can upload information about interesting discoveries they found in-game for other players to explore themselves.[46]
Subsequent content updates to the game continued after the release of Next. "The Abyss", added in October 2018, greatly expanded the game's features in aquatic biomes, with more creatures, resources, base-building features, additional story content, and a new personal submarine vehicle to help explore underwater areas.[47] The next major update "Visions", released in November 2018, expanded the number of biomes available, incorporated more abnormal flora and fauna on certain worlds, and included the opportunity to collect resources and trophies from the crash sites of freighters, alien bases, and fossilized creatures.[48][49] An April 2019 update to the Windows version provided a complete overhaul of the graphics API replacing OpenGL with Vulkan. This brought performance improvements, particularly for players with AMD GPUs. The update includes improved loading times, HDR support and more graphic settings.[50]
Another major update, "Beyond", was released on 14 August 2019.[51][52] "Beyond" features three major components. One component, called "Online", expands upon the game's multiplayer features, which Murray compared to the multiplayer features of Destiny[by whom?]. The game now features a larger number of players on the same server, with up to 32 players on personal computers. If players are in the same general area, they will see other players nearby, while alternatively, players are able to travel to the Nexus, where they can meet other players directly and group up, shop, upgrade equipment, and take on missions.[53][54][55][56] A second component is virtual reality support for Windows-compatible headsets (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index) as well as PlayStation VR on the PlayStation 4 version. Multiple different control schemes are available to players depending on what activity they are in to use with compatible VR controllers.[57][56] The third part of the update features a number of general improvements across the breadth of the game to add more features. Bases have more customization features, featuring electrical grids and programmable elements, in addition to industrial automation features as to create small automated factories. The programmable options allow players to create custom interactions with the game; Hello Games developers had used the new system to create a version of Rocket League within No Man's Sky, for example. Players can domesticate alien creatures, raising them as livestock and use them as mounts in the game. This added a recipe system that can use various resources to create beneficial items.[58][56]
Another update after Beyond, called "Synthesis", released in November 2019, added change to the game's inventory system, the ability to upgrade one's starship without having to purchase a new one, and around 300 quality of life improvements and bug fixes.[59][60] The "Living Ship" update in February 2020 introduced sentient organic ships called Void, along with additional story content related to their origins; further, with the "Living Ship" update, Hello Games stated they will still plan these major updates but may introduce feature sets of these in the weeks ahead during regular patches and content updates, as players had seen ahead of the "Living Ship" update.[61] An "Exo Mech" update in April 2020 added mechanized suits that can withstand environmental hazards on planets and aid in quick traversal and mining of resources.[62]
A June 2020 patch added cross-platform play support between all platform, computer, and storefront versions, with other additional features.[63] "Desolation", released in July 2020, introduced abandoned starships with interiors, generated procedurally, containing alien-infested rooms that players can fight through to find resources.[64]
"Origins" is a major update released in September 2020 that effectively doubled the variation in flora and fauna and added new planetary features like binary and ternary star systems, volcanoes, and localized weather patterns and effects.[65][66] Murray described the "Origins" update as a means to freshen up the game for long-time players as, while previous patches had added numerous new features, they had not really addressed the issues around lack of variety in planetary aspects, which "Origins" set out to address.[67]
"Next Generation" is an update released in November 2020, adding support for the next generation of consoles, the PlayStation 5 (including PlayStation VR) and Xbox Series X and Series S. The update improved the game's visuals on those platforms as well as on the Windows platform to make planets appear fuller, as well as allowing for more extensive base-building sizes. This update also assured that the new console versions were save-game-compatible with the previous ones in the family and supported cross-platform play among all platform versions.[68] "Companions", added in February 2021, allowed players to tame certain alien creatures as domesticated companions on their travels.[69]
The "Expeditions" update in March 2021 added a new Expedition play mode, featuring seasonal challenges that start players at a curated point in the game's universe with pre-allocated equipment, and challenge them to complete various milestones over the course of the season, to earn unique customization options.[70] For example, one such reward during the second seasonal expedition was the ability to unlock a version of the Normandy, the spacecraft from the Mass Effect series from BioWare, coinciding with the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition.[71]
The VR version of No Man's Sky was one of the first titles to support NVidia's Deep learning super sampling (DLSS) technology for VR games with a patch in May 2021.[72] The June 2021 "Prisms" update improved several of the visual effects across the game and introduced support for NVidia DLSS on compatible graphics cards for the personal computer version of the game.[73]
Following an announcement of the update on the game's fifth anniversary, "Frontiers" was released in September 2021. This added procedurally generated alien settlements, as well as the ability for players to manage and expand a single settlement. The update improved the base building further, adding hundreds of new base parts and an overhaul of the base building UI; it also enhanced visual effects for different animations.[74][75] The fourth Expedition "Emergence", released in October 2021 just ahead of both Halloween and the release of the theatrical Dune adaptation, included a number of updates related to the game's giant worms.[76] The "Sentinel" update released in February 2022 improved the game's combat systems, giving the player more weapon capabilities while expanding the difficulty of the planetary defense systems.[77] With the release of "Sentinel", Murray said that Hello Games considers No Man's Sky nowhere near finished, as "the team are always coming up with new things that they want to do with the game: new content and features and areas for improvement."[78] "Outlaws", released in April 2022, improved starship combat and allowed the player to take on the role of a rogue pilot.[79] A seventh expedition named "Leviathan", released in May 2022, introduced "space whale" organic frigates, which can be recruited into a player's frigate fleet.[80] The "Endurance" update in July 2022 improved base-building features including most customization of one's freighters.[81][82] The "Echoes" update in August 2023 added a fourth species to the game based on a robotic race, and added more depth to space combat including pirate fleets.[83] The February 2024 "Omega" brought the ability to start expeditions with established characters, new planet-based missions, and gave players the ability to raid and capture pirate vessels to add to their fleet.[84] In March 2024, the "Orbital" update brought improved variety and features of space stations along with spaceship customization from collected parts.[85]
A port for the Nintendo Switch was released on 7 October 2022. The Switch version had been at work at Hello Games for a few years, according to the studio, and had several technical challenges they overcame but were able to make the version work on the lower-power hardware. The Switch version includes all updates through "Endurance". However, the game will not initially support multiplayer features, though Hello Games plans to add this in sometime after launch.[86][78][87][82] In addition to the Switch release, the game was updated with the "Waypoint" release across all platforms, which improves core gameplay elements for new players while expanding goals for experienced ones, and brings a new "relaxed" game play mode that still presents potential player character death but at a far lower risk compared to the standard game loop[88]
Hello Games announced the development of a PlayStation VR2-optimized port of the game in June 2022.[89] This version was released as the "Fractal Update", coinciding with the VR2's release on 22 February 2023, and included many visual updates for VR users and more options and activities for all players.[90] The "Interceptor" update in April 2023 expanded the number of different enemy Sentinels the player may face, as well as corrupted worlds where some of these Sentinels run rampant.[91]
Apple announced that they have worked with Hello Games to bring the title to macOS and iPadOS, which will utilize the Metal framework with the MetalFX enhanced that Apple unveiled at the 2022 WWDC.[92] The macOS port was released on 1 June 2023.
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (April 2019) |
The Traveller (the player character) wakes up on a remote planet with amnesia and must locate their crashed starship. After finding their starship, its computer guides the Traveller to make the necessary repairs and to collect the resources needed to fuel a hyperspace jump to another planetary system. En route, the Traveller encounters individual members of three alien species, the Gek, the Korvax and the Vy'keen, that inhabit the galaxy. During their voyage, the Traveller is compelled by an unknown force to reach the centre of the galaxy.
Along the way to the centre, the Traveller is alerted to a presence of an anomaly in a nearby system. Travelling there, they find a special space station ("The Space Anomaly") where many strange aliens reside. Two of the aliens, Priest Entity Nada and Specialist Polo, have knowledge beyond what other aliens in the galaxy appear to possess, including being able to speak to the Traveller without translation. They tell of a strange being, found at the centre of the galaxy, and are able to guide the Traveller towards meeting it by directing them to a nearby black hole that can quickly take the Traveller closer to the centre of the galaxy.
As the Traveller continues on their journey, they begin receiving messages from an alien entity named Artemis. Artemis says that they are also a "Traveller" and wished to meet others of their kind, but were trapped on a sunless world after stepping through a strange, ancient portal. After triangulating Artemis' position and seeking help from the local alien species, the Traveller discovers that Artemis' location does not exist. Upon telling Artemis the news, the transmission ends mysteriously and the Traveller learns of yet another Traveller named Apollo.
The Traveller contacts Apollo, telling them about Artemis' predicament. They are instructed by Apollo to uncover the connection between the portals and the Sentinels, the robotic beings protecting each planet. After a skirmish with the Sentinels, the Traveller passes through a portal and is taken aboard a large, unknown vessel in space, where they come face to face with the cosmic being Nada spoke about, named the Atlas. The Traveller is then sent to an unknown planet where they find the grave of Artemis, revealing Artemis has been dead the entire time. While trying to contact Apollo, the Traveller accidentally contacts a new entity named -null-, who tells the Traveller that Artemis can be saved using a "Mind Ark". Once they construct the Mind Ark, the Traveller is told to choose whether to upload Artemis' soul into a machine aboard the Anomaly or to let them die. Regardless of the choice, the Traveller is directed by a distress beacon to another portal where they learn that the Atlas is dying.
The Traveller becomes aware that they, like Nada and Polo, are unique from the other sentient beings in the galaxy, having some sense of the universe's construction and nature.[93] It is revealed that the galaxy itself exists as a computer simulation managed by the Atlas, and the Travellers are entities that were created by the Atlas to explore the simulation. It is also revealed how Nada and Polo met, and how they are "errors" that had become self-aware of being in a simulation and isolated themselves in the Anomaly to help others.[93]
The Traveller investigates more Interfaces and finds themselves once again in direct communication with the Atlas, where it informs the Traveller that it does not want to die. In order to save itself, it directs the Traveller to continue to explore and collect information all while moving towards the centre, where the entity appears to be. The Atlas judges the Traveller's progress and grants them the blueprint for a different Atlas Seed if it deems the Traveller worthy, as well as portal glyphs to aid in reaching the core. As the Traveller gets closer, they receive messages from Apollo and -null-, and help from Nada, Polo, and Atlas Seeds from other Interfaces.
Ultimately, the Traveller reaches the galaxy's centre, finding one final Atlas Interface. The Traveller must choose to either restart the simulation, saving the Atlas, or reject the offer.
If the Traveller chooses to reject the Atlas' offer, the main storyline ends and the Traveller is allowed to explore the galaxy as they wish. Otherwise, if the Traveller chooses to restart the simulation, the Atlas resets, upon which it creates a new galaxy and a new Traveller entity to restart the exploration. It is then revealed that this has happened many times before, each time shortening the life of the Atlas. The Atlas tries to observe the future past its death, but sees nothing, besides the hand of its creator on its glass casing. The Traveller is teleported to the new galaxy, effectively restarting the game.[93][94]
No Man's Sky represented Hello Games' vision of a broad, attention-getting game that they wanted to pursue while they secured their financial well-being through the Joe Danger series of games.[95] The game's original prototype was worked on by Hello Games' Sean Murray, who wanted to create a game about the spirit of exploration inspired by the optimistic science fiction of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein, and the cover artwork of these works in the 1970s and 1980s.[96][97] Murray wanted to re-create the feelings of space exploration seen in older procedurally generated games, including the galaxies of Star Control II, Elite and Freespace.[98][99] Development expanded into a small four-person team prior to its first teaser in December 2013. About a dozen developers worked on the game in the three years leading up to its release, with Sony Interactive Entertainment providing promotional and marketing support. Sony formally announced the title during their press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, the first independently developed game to be presented at the Expo's centrepiece events.[97][100]
"Elite was procedurally generated, and so were lots of games at the time, like Star Control and Freelancer. It's almost like we've gone back to those games. We're trying to explore ideas about openness, and vastness, and freedom."
Sean Murray, Hello Games co-founder[98]
The game's engine employs several deterministic algorithms such as parameterised mathematical equations that can mimic a wide range of geometry and structure found in nature. Art elements created by human artists are used and altered as well.[97] The game's audio, including ambient sounds and its underlying soundtrack, also uses procedural generation methods from base samples created by audio designer Paul Weir and the British musical group 65daysofstatic.[101]
Promotion and marketing
No Man's Sky was revealed at the VGX Awards in December 2013, and subsequently gained significant attention from the gaming press.[102][103][104][105] Hello Games sought help from a publisher and got the interest of Sony Interactive Entertainment (then Sony Computer Entertainment). Sony offered to provide development funding but Hello Games only requested financial assistance for promotion and publication.[106] Sony presented the game at their media event during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 (E3); until that point, no independently developed game has been demonstrated during these centre-stage events.[97][100]
Rumors circulated in the lead-up to the 2015 Paris Games Week in October 2015 that No Man's Sky would be released alongside Sony's press conference, but Murray and Sony denied these rumours.[107] Instead, Sony used their press conference to announce the game's expected release in June 2016 for the PlayStation 4.[108][109]
The game's scheduled release during the week of 21 June 2016 was announced in March 2016, along with the onset of pre-orders for both PlayStation 4 and Windows versions. Hello Games also announced that the PlayStation 4 version would also be available in both a standard and "Limited Edition" retail release, published by Sony, alongside the digital version.[110][111][112] About a month before this planned release, Sony and Hello Games announced that the game would be delayed until August 2016, with Murray opting to use the few extra weeks as "some key moments needed extra polish to bring them up to our standards".[113] Hello Games opted not to present at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 in June 2016 so as to devote more time to polishing the game, with Murray noting that due to the structure of the game, "we get one shot to make this game and we can't mess it up."[114] The game had gone gold on 7 July 2016,[115] and was released on 9 August 2016.[116]
The release date in the United Kingdom, originally slated for 12 August and two days after the rest of Europe, was later pushed up to 10 August due in part to a new deal Sony arranged with retailers to allow for simultaneous release in both regions.[117] Two weeks before release, the worldwide Windows version release was pushed out a few days, to 12 August 2016.[118] Murray stated through Twitter that they felt the best experience for players would be a simultaneous worldwide release on the Windows platform, something they could not control with the retail aspects that were associated with the regional PlayStation 4 market, and thus opted to hold back the Windows release to make this possible.[119] They used the few extra days to finish additional technical features that they wanted to include at the Windows launch, such as multiple monitor widescreen support.[120]
The limited edition retail version includes an art book and a comic written by Dave Gibbons, James Swallow and Angus McKie; Sony previously expressed interest in companion fiction for the game's release, and Murray had engaged with Gibbons on developing such a work.[97][121] Swallow helped with some of the in-game narrative.[122] A limited-run "Explorer's Edition" for the Windows version, published by iam8bit, included a miniature replica of one of the game's spacecraft alongside other materials.[123] Sony released a limited edition bundle with No Man's Sky and a custom face plate for the PlayStation 4 in Europe.[124]
The New Yorker featured No Man's Sky in their 2015 The New Yorker Festival as part of their inaugural Tech@Fest event, highlighting topics on the intersection of culture and technology.[125] On 2 October 2015, Murray made an appearance and gave a demonstration of the game on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, an American television late-night talk show.[126][127]
In the weeks leading up to the game's release, Sony released a set of four videos, each focused on the principal activities of the game: exploring, fighting, trading, and surviving.[128] Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe also released a television advertisement for the game featuring comedian Bill Bailey.[129]
Intellectual property issues
Hello Games had been in legal negotiations with Sky Group (formerly Sky plc) over the trademark on the word "Sky" used for No Man's Sky, a trademark Sky had previously defended against Microsoft's choice of "Skydrive". The issue was ultimately settled in June 2016, allowing Hello Games to continue to use the name.[130]
A few weeks before the game's launch, No Man's Sky was claimed to be using the superformula based on work done by Dr. Johan Gielis in 2003 and subsequently patented by Gielis under the Dutch company Genicap which Gielis founded and serves as Chief Research Officer. Murray had mentioned the superformula while describing the procedural generation aspects of the game in an interview with The New Yorker during development.[97] Genicap anticipates developing a software tool using the superformula for their own product that they can see being used in video game development, which Hello Games would be infringing on if they had used the superformula in the game. The company states they have attempted to reach out to Hello Games to ask them about its use for No Man's Sky but have not received anything back. Genicap said they did not want to stop the launch of No Man's Sky, considered the game to be "very impressive", and that they would like to talk more with Hello Games to exchange knowledge with them, but "if the formula is used we'll need to have a talk".[131][132][133][134] Murray replied that No Man's Sky does not use the superformula, and was working to arrange a meeting with Genicap to discuss the situation and their respective mathematics.[135]
Leaked copies and pre-release review delays
Two weeks before release, a Reddit user was able to purchase a leaked copy of the game for the PlayStation 4 from eBay for roughly $1,250, and started posting various videos of their experiences in the game.[136] Other users claimed to have leaked copies and began sharing their own gameplay videos. Some of these reports included negative elements about the game, including frequent crashes and a much-shorter time to "complete" the game by reaching the centre of the virtual galaxy than Hello Games had claimed, leading many fans to express concern and frustration that the game might not be as good as they anticipated.[137][138] In response, Murray asked people waiting for the game to avoid these spoilers, stating "We've spent years filling No Man's Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself."[139]
Some retailers broke the street date, as several players, including journalists at Kotaku and Polygon, streamed their starting playthroughs of the game starting from 5 August 2016.[140][141] Polygon noted that Sony had not issued any review embargoes for the game at this point.[142] Hello Games reset the servers for the game just prior to 9 August 2016 so as to give all players a clean slate.[143] Prior to release, Sony requested sites to take down videos from early copies, citing that due to the nature of the game, they considered that Hello Games' vision of the game would only be met once a day-one patch was made available at release.[144] Some of these video takedowns had accidentally included users discussing the game but without using these pre-release footage videos, a situation that Murray and Sony worked to resolve.[145]
The day-one patch, which Hello Games had been at work at since the game went gold in July, altered several aspects of how the procedurally generated universe was created, such that existing saves from previous copies would no longer work. This patch removed an exploit that was observed by pre-release players that allowed them to complete the game much faster than anticipated.[122] Commentators noted that the patch would substantially change the aspects of the game previously critiqued by aforementioned early players, and believed some of the changes were made specifically to address these concerns.[146][147]
Concern was raised by the fan community when OpenCritic, a review aggregator platform, stated that there were going to be no review copies of the game prior to the public release and a review embargo that would end on the date of release.[140] The lack of review copies is a general sign within the industry that there are concerns by the developers or publishers that a game may not live up to expectations and thus indicates that they want to minimise any impact reviews may have prior to release.[142] However, both OpenCritic and Sony later affirmed there would be pre-release review copies and that they were waiting on a pre-release patch before sending these out to journalists.[140] Eurogamer noted that they had expected to have review copies by 5 August, but these were pushed until 8 August so as to get the day-one patch in place, a situation they attributed to the certification process required by Sony for any games on their service.[148] Because of the late arrival of the review copies, and the size of the game, critics presented their reviews "in progress" over several days, omitting a final review score until they had completed enough of the game to their satisfaction.[149][150]
At launch, a number of software bugs affected both the PlayStation 4 and Windows versions. A game-breaking bug occurred with an in-game pre-order bonus spaceship players could collect that would potentially strand them on a planet, and a resource duplication exploit could significantly reduce the time needed to reach the game's endings.[151] The Windows version garnered several reports of poor graphics rendering, framerates, and the inability to even start the game.[152][153] Within a day, Hello Games had identified several of the common issues and issued patches while working to provide better technical support and resolve other issues.[154] Murray stated that their initial patches for both systems would be "focused on customer support" before moving onto adding in new features.[155]
Future
Murray offered the potential to extend the game through downloadable content that, because of the procedural generation systems used, would likely be in the form of added features rather than new content.[24] Hello Games pointed to base building and the ability to purchase freighters as planned additions to the game.[146] Murray anticipated that all updates would be freely available.[156][157] Former Sony executive Shahid Ahmad, who led Sony's efforts to get No Man's Sky, stated that Hello Games had a planned schedule of updates for the game as early as 2013.[158]
The game's first major content patch, called the "Foundation Update", was released in November 2016 and added the ability for planet-side base-building, interstellar freighter purchases with similar base-building customisation, as well as an open Creative mode. It includes a Survival mode, which reduces the availability of resources and makes encounters with hostiles more difficult and makes various other improvements.[159][160]
Murray did suggest the possibility of releasing modding tools for Windows players to alter the game, though noted that they would be limited, and would not allow players to create new planets in the game, for example.[161] About a week after the Windows release players had already started to examine the game's files and create unofficial mods, with at least one mod-sharing website offering these for distribution.[162] Hello Games have since provided patches that help to support these user mods.[163]
Murray stated in an interview with IGN prior to release that virtual reality "would be a really good fit" for No Man's Sky, as the immersive experience could create "really intense moments within a game";[164][165] virtual reality support was subsequently announced as part of the free "Beyond" update in mid-2019. Murray also commented on the potential for a remastering of No Man's Sky for a system with more hardware capabilities, suggesting that they would be able to both increase the texture resolution and the degree of complexity of the flora and fauna on the planets.[166]