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, Whats up 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 utterly free DLC.
Granted, the sport obtained 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, Whats up Video games has turned it right into a Cinderella story, redeeming itself for the dumpster-fire launch.
The builders have labored virtually completely on No Man’s Sky for almost eight years post-launch. In 2020, they launched The Final Campfire, however HG continued placing out NMS content material all through that sport’s growth. 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? Whats up Video games cannot simply hold pumping out free content material ceaselessly – not with out some sort of monetization. No Man’s Sky’s newest replace could maintain a clue.
On Thursday, HG pushed one other enormous content material drop for NMS known as Omega. I imagine this could be No Man’s Sky’s final main replace for a couple of causes.
First, it is all within the title. Omega means the top. As Merriam-Webster defines it: “The intense or last half,” additionally, ” one thing or somebody designated with the title 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, Whats up Video games doesn’t explicitly point out anyplace in its patch notes that that is the top of NMS growth. Undoubtedly take my hypothesis with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I am not simply making my assumption based mostly solely on the replace’s title.
Whats up Video games additionally introduced it is making No Man’s Sky free-to-play over the subsequent 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 value a go without charge.
By itself, this doesn’t point out that Whats up Video games is ending NMS growth both. Nevertheless, one final push to get new gamers does make sense if you end up about to shut the books on a mission, particularly in mild of my last very important level. An important purpose I believe HG is wrapping it up is that it’s getting ready to go full gear into Mild No Hearth growth.
In December, Sean Murray introduced Mild No Hearth on the 2023 Recreation Awards Present. The title appears to be like like No Man’s Sky set in a fantasy realm. In truth, judging by the trailer, it clearly makes use of the NMS engine. Due to this fact, a lot of the exhausting work is already finished, though, Murray mentioned it is an much more bold mission. Contemplating the shear quantity of content material in its epic house opera, that is a really excessive bar.
The sport nonetheless has no launch date, and there are most likely hours of writing left to do. It has some distinctive character fashions, however there are probably many extra the group must create. So we’re most likely speaking a few important quantity of growth left. Even so, contemplating all of the free work the studio has finished during the last seven-and-a-half years, it’s probably seeking to get Mild No Hearth out as quickly as doable.
Will it abandon No Man’s Sky fully within the meantime? In all probability 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 truth, shortly after launching Omega, builders needed to rush out the Omega 4.51 patch to repair stability on the Xbox.
The Omega replace has a whole lot 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, reasonably than a whimper. Take a look at all the main points within the No Man’s Sky Patch Notes.