Trying again: No Man’s Sky is the longest-running labor of affection I can recall in over forty years of gaming. Since its launch in August 2016, Hiya Video games has shoveled numerous man-hours into it, producing greater than two dozen iterations with out asking for a dime over its retail price–no subscriptions, no microtransactions, and fully free DLC.
Granted, the sport acquired off to a really tough begin, partly due to Sony demanding the studio rush an unfinished product out the door and partly due to Sean Murray overhyping and misrepresenting it. Nevertheless, Hiya Video games has turned it right into a Cinderella story, redeeming itself for the dumpster-fire launch.
The builders have labored nearly completely on No Man’s Sky for practically eight years post-launch. In 2020, they launched The Final Campfire, however HG continued placing out NMS content material all through that recreation’s improvement. Within the 4 years between the 2, HG pushed out 94 No Man’s Sky patches, with 12 being main content material packages.
First 4 years of No Man’s Sky Updates
- Basis – November 2016
- Pathfinder – March 2017
- Atlas Rises – August 2017
- Subsequent – July 2018
- The Abyss – October 2018
- Visions – November 2018
- Past – August 2019
- Synthesis – November 2019
- Residing Ship – February 2020
- Exo Mech – April 2020
- Crossplay – June 2020
- Desolation – July 2020
So when will it finish? Hiya Video games cannot simply hold pumping out free content material eternally – not with out some sort of monetization. No Man’s Sky’s newest replace could maintain a clue.
On Thursday, HG pushed one other big content material drop for NMS referred to as Omega. I imagine this is likely to be No Man’s Sky’s final main replace for a number of causes.
First, it is all within the identify. Omega means the top. As Merriam-Webster defines it: “The intense or ultimate half,” additionally, ” one thing or somebody designated with the identify omega or the Greek letter ω particularly denoting the final in place, order, or class.” So it looks like a wink and a nod to it being the final iteration.
Thoughts you, Hiya Video games doesn’t explicitly point out anyplace in its patch notes that that is the top of NMS improvement. Positively take my hypothesis with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I am not simply making my assumption based mostly solely on the replace’s identify.
Hiya Video games additionally introduced it is making No Man’s Sky free-to-play over the following few days. Beginning yesterday, anybody can play NMS. The free trial lasts till 6 pm GMT on Monday, February 19. If in case you have by no means performed it, it undoubtedly price a go for gratis.
By itself, this doesn’t point out that Hiya Video games is ending NMS improvement both. Nevertheless, one final push to get new gamers does make sense if you find yourself about to shut the books on a mission, particularly in gentle of my ultimate important level. An important motive I feel HG is wrapping it up is that it’s making ready to go full gear into Mild No Hearth improvement.
In December, Sean Murray introduced Mild No Hearth on the 2023 Sport Awards Present. The title seems to be like No Man’s Sky set in a fantasy realm. In reality, judging by the trailer, it clearly makes use of the NMS engine. Subsequently, a lot of the onerous work is already accomplished, though, Murray mentioned it is an much more bold mission. Contemplating the shear quantity of content material in its epic area opera, that is a really excessive bar.
The sport nonetheless has no launch date, and there are in all probability hours of writing left to do. It has some distinctive character fashions, however there are possible many extra the staff must create. So we’re in all probability speaking a couple of vital quantity of improvement left. Even so, contemplating all of the free work the studio has accomplished during the last seven-and-a-half years, it’s possible trying to get Mild No Hearth out as quickly as doable.
Will it abandon No Man’s Sky solely within the meantime? Most likely not. It nonetheless has seasonal expeditions. The newest is the eponymous Omega Expedition. There are additionally bug and QoL patches that may proceed rolling out as wanted. In reality, shortly after launching Omega, builders needed to rush out the Omega 4.51 patch to repair stability on the Xbox.
The Omega replace has plenty of thrilling content material, together with some nice rewards for finishing the expedition, shared expedition loot, pirating pirate dreadnoughts, and extra. Whether it is NMS’s final replace, it is going out with a bang, moderately than a whimper. Take a look at all the main points within the No Man’s Sky Patch Notes.
