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, Howdy 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 acquired off to a really tough begin, partly because of Sony demanding the studio rush an unfinished product out the door and partly because of Sean Murray overhyping and misrepresenting it. Nevertheless, Howdy Video games has turned it right into a Cinderella story, redeeming itself for the dumpster-fire launch.
The builders have labored nearly solely 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 sport’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? Howdy Video games cannot simply maintain pumping out free content material ceaselessly – not with out some type of monetization. No Man’s Sky’s newest replace might maintain a clue.
On Thursday, HG pushed one other enormous content material drop for NMS known as Omega. I imagine this is perhaps 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 acute 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, Howdy Video games doesn’t explicitly point out wherever in its patch notes that that is the top of NMS improvement. Undoubtedly take my hypothesis with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I am not simply making my assumption primarily based solely on the replace’s identify.
Howdy 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. When you have by no means performed it, it undoubtedly price a go for free of charge.
By itself, this doesn’t point out that Howdy Video games is ending NMS improvement both. Nevertheless, one final push to get new gamers does make sense when you’re about to shut the books on a mission, particularly in mild of my ultimate very important level. Crucial motive I feel HG is wrapping it up is that it’s making ready to go full gear into Gentle No Fireplace improvement.
In December, Sean Murray introduced Gentle No Fireplace on the 2023 Sport Awards Present. The title appears to be like like No Man’s Sky set in a fantasy realm. The truth is, judging by the trailer, it clearly makes use of the NMS engine. Subsequently, a lot of the onerous work is already achieved, 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 seemingly 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 achieved over the past seven-and-a-half years, it’s seemingly seeking to get Gentle No Fireplace out as quickly as potential.
Will it abandon No Man’s Sky totally 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. The truth is, 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. Try all the main points within the No Man’s Sky Patch Notes.