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Exploring (and dying) in space is much more rewarding when done with friends!
Cropcrowd.co – Sean Murray, the founder and creator of outer space exploration game No Man’s Sky, revealed via a press release that the game’s next free update will improve social functions and online play, among other unannounced features.
What was originally planned to be three separate updates, akin to 2018’s Abyss and Visions, has been rolled together into a neat package that Hello Games will release as No Man’s Sky: Beyond. The first part, called No Man’s Sky: Online will focus on many of the social aspects introduced in Next, improving them further still.
“No Man’s Sky Online includes a radical new social and multiplayer experience which empowers players everywhere in the universe to meet and play together,” Murray said in the press release. “These changes are an answer to how we have seen people playing since the release of NEXT, and is something we’ve dreamed of for a long time.”
Murray continued by saying that he doesn’t consider the game an MMO, and thus has no plans to implement either a subscription or microtransactions to the game. This statement is likely to nip in the bud concerns around monetization present in many other AAA online games.
While we don’t know much more at this time, the online aspects of Next were one of the most welcome changes when the game all but relaunched last year. Giving players more tools to interact and play together is a smart move given the rich and thriving communities that sprang up despite limitations.
“We will talk more about each component when we know we can be precise, and look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks,” Murray said. “Beyond will be our most ambitious chapter so far, and something we’ve been working ridiculously hard on. We’ll continue to support No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable future.”
No Man’s Sky, No Man’s Sky: Beyond, press release