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.
Comments
20 responses to “No Man’s Sky Is Getting Full Multiplayer”
I prefer that too, mate.
Stick to what you know and leave the speaking to…..well, folks who have a little restraint and maybe a few days worth of PR training.
Yeah, I don’t think PR training is required for a person to simply not hype up or promise things they’re simply not going to deliver.
Oh god no, but they tend to be a little more coy, clever liars or at least keep a little distance to avoid becoming a figurehead.
Looking forward to this, the last couple of updates have been great.
But … aside from the first dot point (which seems unequivocal) there’s some odd phrasing in the other four dot points.
Umm, they’re actually there, right?
Seen only?
In the actual game, or some lame arena thing?
I am eagerly anticipating this update … don’t screw with us Sean.
Pretty much with you here as well, considering how poorly received the game was at release and why, you would think they would make an effort to avoid obfuscating language when describing the multiplayer they are going to introduce:
Start?
But not specifically players?
but not visited?
This is the closest it gets to confirming other players, but again, still doesn’t clearly state you can battle with other players
Same as above, say’s you can race, doesn’t state you can race against other players
It sounds as though they are leaning toward a guild wars 2 style multiplayer where you only do things with other players you specifically choose to do them with, which is probably fine but bloody hell they are doing everything they can to say they are doing something without actually saying they are going to do something.
I feel like Sony never receive the share of flack they deserve from the mess that’s been No Man’s Sky. I think it’s pretty evident that Hello Games got screwed over in that deal and have been paying for it ever since.
How so? It was Murray that blatantly lied about the game. Not even vague comments, outright lies.
Pretty sure SM had a longer timeframe in mind and Sony forced them to market so they had no time to implement half the stuff he had promised originally.
If anything it was Sony that got screwed over giving them a time slot for the E3 presentation when Murray requested for it.
How exactly is it that evident?
Last I checked when HG tried to point fingers at Sony they only came off looking like bigger liars….
According to the bountiful mouth of Murray himself, Sony was literally willing to throw handfuls of money and man power at No Mans Sky’s development, something Murray and HG refused, requesting only marketing support in return for a PS4 focus.
Now if we are talking evidence, I’m gonna say Sony well and truely delivered on that support with Murray personally appearing at every major gaming outlet around the world, major TV spots on talk shows and a dedicated spot at E3’s centre stage.
No other indie developer has enjoyed anything even close to that kind of saturation….ever.
Murray also put his foot in it at a GDC appearance by stating the decision to release NMS in its current state was due to funds running dry.
I do agree though that Sony deserves more criticism, in my opinion they should’ve been harder on HG.
But the idea that HG got the raw end of the stick in a deal where they were given free reign and unprecedented support is a little rich.
Fair call. “Evident” definitely wasn’t the right word to use, so much as speculation based on the biases of my own experiences dealing with major publishers.
I hope the full story finds its way out one day. It’ll be an interesting one regardless of where the mistakes, poor choices and demands were made.
At this rate well have all the things Hello games promised in NMS by 2050.
I realised yesterday that the setting for Cyberpunk 2020, the original books at least, is only about 18 months from now. So we may literally be living in the cyberpunk future before NMS gets the features it was advertised to have.
Apart from cyberlimbs not being that advanced we already live in a Cyberpunk world 😀
In other words all the bad shit without any off the cool stuff.
End of privacy and corporate overlords, check!
Transporters, Cybernetics and hover cars, TBC
Multiplayer wont save a dead game WITH NOTHING TO DO IN IT, its a big empty sandbox with nothing to fucking do besides upgrade your ship until you max out
Like its not even as full a space game as elite dangerous and that was a boring empty game too
Fuck off no mans sky, elite dangerous sucked because it was big and empty and pointless as well
Multiplayer wont save a game with nothing to fucking do, it suffers big time from spore syndrome with its procedurally generated emptiness of samey generic bullshit
Sean Murray shouldn’t talk about NMS anymore. Ever.
He’s done enough damage.
Can’t wait. This is one of the best games of the past couple of years and I’ve been looking for a reason to dive back in.
Might grab it on PC this time around too.
Forgetting for a second that the initial release for this game was a disaster… after all their updates, including this new multiplayer update (when it releases) – No Man’s Sky is a pretty decent game 😀
I’m looking forward to this.
NMS wasn’t meant to be the game that pleased everyone. SM stated that from the very beginning, in fact he even sated he hoped it wouldn’t be something everyone would enjoy. But there are people, including myself, who enjoyed it from the outset, and still do. The game is by no means dead… there’s a large community of avid players out there still active and loving it what that universe has to offer.
The updates have made it a much better and more enjoyable game. HG as an indie developer has gone above and beyond to please their captive audience and proven that they’re in it for the long haul, and the coming update sounds like it’s going to be great. I’m definitely looking forward to it.