Hello,
Well, we’re coming to the end of another incredibly busy year for No Man’s Sky, one that has seen us hit our highest player numbers since launch, and we couldn’t be more grateful for being able to continue this journey with you all nine years after our initial launch.
It would mean the world to our tiny team if you could take a few moments to nominate us for the “Labor of Love” category in the upcoming Steam Awards. It feels like, this year in particular, there’s been a lot of “labor” to love, with 5 major updates and 4 expeditions.
We kicked off the year in January with the release of the much anticipated Worlds Part II update. Completing the transformation of the universe which 2024’s Worlds Part I started, Part II introduced new stars, new story, and new planets. Ancient ruins, gas giants and water worlds were there to be explored and strange creatures, varied biomes and dramatic terrain to be discovered. New gameplay and huge improvements in lighting and water rendering capped off one of our biggest first updates of the year and was a real statement of intent for the rest of the year.
In March, we delved into the pre-history of the No Man’s Sky universe with the release of the Relics update. Hundreds of unique bones could now be excavated from beneath your feet as you journeyed from planet to planet, assembling skeletons to design fossil exhibits, and joining the community on an expedition to recreate lost creatures and battle against gargantuan stone guardians.
In May, the Beacon update encouraged players to expand their planetary empire by becoming Overseer of multiple settlements, and discover the townships of the secretive robotic Autophage. Beacon also coincided with the release of the Switch 2 version as a Day 1 game and is a free update for Switch 1 owners!
In August, for our ninth anniversary, we released the mammoth and transformative Voyagers. Travellers were now able to create their own colossal, fully furnished, completely bespoke Corvette-class starship, invite their friends on board…and then spacewalk or sky-dive out of them together. Voyagers saw our player numbers return to levels we’d not seen in 9 years and it was genuinely thrilling to welcome so many people, new and old, to our weird little universe.
In October our Halloween update, Breach, players traversed a desolate and abandoned universe and encountered the abandoned remains of ill-fated corvette ships, all ripe for scavenging ship modules to add to their corvette-building arsenal.
In addition to these major updates, we have also run 4 community expeditions each with their own unique theme, challenges and rewards, including the return of the Normandy from Mass Effect a few months ago for N7 Day.
For those of you who weren’t able to participate in these the first time around, we are re-running those in a reduxed fashion right now for the holiday season. Full dates and details can be found here.
No Man’s Sky has now had well over 30 major updates since it launched in 2016, and the ridiculously small development team continues to amaze me with their energy and ideas, and their commitment to support the game across so many formats (PC, GOG, Steam Deck, PCVR, PS4, PS5, PSVR1 and 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 1 & 2, Mac).
As we look towards our 10th anniversary year next year, they are showing no signs of slowing down. We will continue as long as they are enjoying creating and the community are enjoying what they are making. It truly is a labor of love for me and for them.
In the background, another tiny team at Hello is continuing at pace on our next Labor of Love, Light No Fire, and we know a lot of you are keen to hear more. For now, it suffices to say that I am really pleased with the progress we are making and I think it’s going to be something really special. You can wishlist it here.
Our journey continues.
Sean