The Foundation Update got people to returning to Hello Games’ space explorer, and soon there will be another good reason to mine emeril again.
In an announcement through Steam, a Hello Games developer wrote that the “Path Finder update” would add “a new vehicle that will aid home planet exploration” soon. “We were surprised and excited by the response to Foundation, and we have been listening carefully to community feedback since then,” the developer added.
It’s an interesting direction for No Man’s Sky, considering the elevator pitch was all about exploring space rather than setting up shop on one for a little while. But if Fallout is any guide, people love building crap.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/11/no-mans-sky-update-is-bringing-thousands-of-curious-players-back/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/d4mguza5j9drrk1sejli.jpg” title=”No Man’s Sky Update Is Bringing Thousands Of Curious Players Back” excerpt=”Before the big “Foundation” update that surprise-launched this weekend, No Man’s Sky wasn’t in a great place. On Steam, the game’s concurrent player count hovered mostly between 200 and 500. It wasn’t even within spitting distance of Steam’s top 100 most-played games.”]
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/11/10-cool-player-bases-from-no-mans-skys-update/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/thjemotefnmjvh1cbgqu.jpg” title=”10 Cool Player Bases From No Man’s Sky’s Update” excerpt=”No Man’s Sky’s Foundation update allows players to finally start building bases. With limited tools, players are making beautiful new homes in the game’s refreshed universes.”]
What will be interesting to see is whether Hello Games doubles down on the base building aspect, much in the same way games like Astroneer have. If the player base is any guide, they’ll need to: after thousands of players returned for the Foundation Update, No Man’s Sky‘s active audience has dropped to several hundred average players a day, down from nearly 37,000 on Steam when the game launched.
Comments
16 responses to “No Man’s Sky Is Getting A New Vehicle Soon”
TBH I’m surprised it’s that high.
Hm. Interesting. Maybe it’s something slower and lower to the ground so that the god-awful pop-in isn’t as noticeable.
That chart linked in the last paragraph is damning. Only two months after launch average players already down to 800 a day, and even the Foundation update didn’t manage to get people sticking around longer than the few weeks after it hit.
For a game with a triple-A price tag and the goal of creating a long-term play experience, you know you’re doing badly when H1Z1: Just Survive has seven times the average player count and even Marvel Puzzle Quest has double.
That said, that’s only for Steam, and NMS is also on the PS4. It’d be interesting to see the player stats for the console given that there tends to be a larger player base.
But yeah, not looking good. Then again there’s only so much to do in the game, and it’s a fairly niche title – these games tend to have a rise around every patch and subsequently die off again.
Broken post apparently.
It would be nice if GOG or Sony released stats for this kind of thing, but unfortunately we only have Steam numbers to go by. According to VGChartz there were 1.8 million sales on the PS4 compared to 800K on Steam and an unknown amount on GOG, so extrapolating the Steam data would suggest 1500-2000 average daily players across all platforms, which is still incredibly low.
It’s also fairly normal. NMS does have very low players currently, but take a look at some other titles (I checked out Fallout 4, Borderlands 2 etc) and you see that launch numbers and numbers just a few months later are an order of magnitude different. Relatively, NMS is about the same drop off rate as other games.
Fallout 4 dropped to 55,000 players (76% drop compared to launch month activity) two months after launch and still has 20,000 (8% of launch month activity) players average today. Borderlands 2 dropped to 15,000 players (75% drop) two months in and still has 5,000 (8%) players average today. Both those sets of numbers are pretty consistent: ~25% activity after 2 months, ~8% activity today.
No Man’s Sky had 774 players (98% drop) two months after launch and has 476 (1%) players average today. That’s ~2% activity after 2 months and ~1% activity today.
Come on now.
Also both Fallout and Borderlands are narrative-based games that most people treat as a once-and-done deal. NMS is open-ended as OP points out so should have much higher player retention.
maybe the game is just too niche?
i mean is there any other objective other than get to the center of the universe?
They may have added objectives since launch, I only played for a few days back then and have no idea how things are now. The game didn’t have to be niche, I think it would have had pretty widespread appeal if it had launched with the features people expected to be in it. As it is now though, it’s hard to say if its lack of popularity is because it’s too niche or because it’s too subpar.
i imagine it’s a combination of both
bad rep and word of mouth can play a decent part in the success of game sales.
It’s also $22 on the PSN right now (for PS+ members anyway)
Some sort of hover-bike or land-speeder would be a great addition for exploring planets. So often I’d trek across the surface of an alien world for 30+ minutes, only to be faced with an equally long trek back. Sure, there are beacons to call your ship every now and again, but on some planets those are far and wide.
I come back to this game from time to time. Slowly building a base and working towards buying a freighter. It’s perfect for when I want pretty things to look at and not kill. Abzu is the same for me, nice visuals and no violence.
Wow, A whole new vehicle. Such a massive update hello games. Who needs all those features you promised us.