Nearly two years after it first launched, the space exploration game No Man’s Sky will finally get a proper multiplayer mode, developer Hello Games said last night.
Speaking on the Inside Xbox YouTube show, No Man’s Sky director Sean Murray said that alongside the upcoming Xbox One launch on July 24, the game will start allowing players to work and fight alongside one another. Although No Man’s Sky did get a multiplayer update last August, that was very rudimentary, with players only represented as glowing orbs on one another’s screens. This is the real thing.
Here’s how Hello Games describes it in a press release:
Explore the infinite universe with your friends, or bump into random travellers
As you voyage together, friends will help you stay alive, or prey on others to survive
Build bases from tiny shelters to complex colonies that you create as a team and can be seen by the community
Be a pirate or a wingman in epic space battles with friends and foes
Race exocraft across weird alien terrains and create tracks to share online
“That’s always been the potential I think everyone could see in what we were making, it’s been a lot of hard work, but thanks to the team and the community we are so glad to finally able to make it a reality,” wrote Murray on the company’s website.No Man’s Sky has been a controversial game, in large part due to Murray’s messages to press, which painted the picture of something far more ambitious than what actually shipped. The biggest controversy involved a statement that Murray had made indicating that players would be able to see one another’s character models if they wound up on the same planet. When the game launched, in August 2016, players found out that wasn’t the case.
Since then, Murray and Hello Games have put out a large number of patches to No Man’s Sky, adding new features, including “joint exploration,” which allowed players to finally meet up and see one another. Now, it appears that No Man’s Sky will get the type of robust multiplayer that fans have wanted since before the game shipped.
“Something I’ve learned is that I much prefer making games to talking about them,” Murray added.
cannot wait.
I must really try the game again. Haven’t played it since the initial launch. Is it worth playing again though?
I only played it quite recently and it was quite good. Felt a lot more alive than people made it out to be. Having full multiplayer support will give it even more life and I’m curious to see how it will turn out.
For me, it’s a definite yes. There have been some great improvements. But I am also one of the people that preorder and loved the game as it was released. So my advice might be skewed.
I noticed GOG is saying multiplayer got delayed again, so their paying for refunds out of their own pocket, even if the 30-day refund window has passed.
Hmm, I might stick this one on my wishlist now that it seems that they’ve made vast improvements to the game.
I was thinking the same thing
I would honestly do that. At the moment it feels like a completely different game. Everything has been reworked and it’s a great game right now. I am seriously considering getting it on Xbox. My PC just isn’t beefy enough to play the game smoothly at the moment without resorting to dropping the graphic settings. But even then, it’s a joy to play.
I thought the same. Then I saw it for half off on a steam midweek sale and grabbed it.
I’m keen to finally get back home tonight to play it again.
I bought it during the Steam sale end of last year and played a good 10-12 hours (IIRC) of it. I enjoyed the experience and don’t know why I never ended up playing it more. I guess the grind for resources and stuff to sell just got too much, as my puny ship couldn’t hold much cargo and forced me to find vendors where I could offload it for some measly pennies. Come to think of it, that’s exactly why I stopped playing - the progression felt way too slow compared to other grindy games I’ve played in recent years.