The No Man's Sky NEXT update is coming Tuesday, July 24. Nearly two years after its initial launch, Hello Games is making good on its promise for full-fledged multiplayer in its pulpy sci-fi action-adventure survival. Coming up with 18 quintillion planets was apparently the easy part. Making it so you could play along with buddies was the hard part.
The Atlas Rises update, launched in August 2017, introduced a limited multiplayer component called "joint exploration." It allowed up to 16 players to see each other as floating orbs, and to have proximity-based communication. Portals let players quickly travel to more populated planets or to meet up with friends. The previous Foundation and PathFinder updates also allowed the sharing of bases, racetracks, and the ability to leave messages for other players on planet surfaces and in bases.
No Man's Sky NEXT will purportedly do all this, but with full-on, mildly customizable avatars—with people rather than floating orbs. Director Sean Murray admits that No Man's Sky can be "mysterious, a bit weird at times...and sometimes a little bit lonely." But Murray says multiplayer will now be more fun, more funny, more intense. Just watch out for the players that are out there to prey on others. Not sure how people can create safe spaces inside the game for themselves. Hopefully that's thoroughly addressed.
No Man's Sky NEXT comes part and parcel with the game's Xbox One launch on July 24. But this big update, which has been worked on for a full year ("This will be our biggest update yet"), is a simultaneous and free update for existing PC and PS4 players.
Best of luck to Sean Murray and Co. On Xbox One, with the Xbox community, Hello Games gets a second chance to make a first impression. But what comes after the upcoming Xbox One launch for No Man's Sky? "We're better at making games than talking about them," Murray says. I'm just happy that Murray has weathered the storm and is still doing the thing he loves—making games.
NO MAN’S SKY NEXT RELEASE DATE AND MULTIPLAYER GAMEPLAY REVEALED
Highly Anticipated Xbox Launch Coming in July, with Massive Update on All Platforms.
CALABASAS, Calif. – Friday, May 18 – Hello Games, an indie team based in the United Kingdom, announced live to fans via Inside Xbox that No Man’s Sky will launch on Xbox One on Tuesday, July 24 in North America, and Friday, July 27 in Europe. This launch will bring a full multiplayer experience for the first time to the limitless procedural universe. As part of No Man’s Sky NEXT, this will be a free update launching simultaneously for new players on Xbox One and existing players on PC and PS4.
“Multiplayer completely changes the No Man’s Sky experience; it’s emergent, fun and intense in ways we always wanted it to be. I’m so happy this is finally happening,” said Sean Murray, founder, Hello Games. “It is genuinely exciting to be able to fully realize the potential so many people could see in No Man’s Sky. This will be our biggest update yet and we’re pumped to be bringing Xbox players along on the journey with us now too.”
With this launch, players across Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam on PC will be able to explore, fight and survive with friends as they voyage across the vast, procedurally-generated sandbox universe in multiplayer mode, with features including:
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
The Xbox One launch of No Man’s Sky will include Next and three other major updates (Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises) as well as dozens of smaller patches.
505 Games will distribute the physical Xbox One version worldwide. For more information about No Man’s Sky and the upcoming Next update, please visit: https://www.nomanssky.com/
ABOUT THIS GAME
Inspired by the adventure and imagination that we love from classic science-fiction, No Man's Sky presents you with a galaxy to explore, filled with unique planets and lifeforms, constant danger and action.
In No Man's Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you'll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before - and perhaps never will again.
