No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game created and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S in November 2020, for Nintendo Switch in October 2022, for macOS in June 2023, and for Nintendo Switch 2 in June 2025.
The game is based on four main elements: exploration, survival, combat, and trading. Players can explore a huge, computer-generated universe with over 18 quintillion planets. Each planet has its own unique environment, including different plants, animals, and alien species. These aliens may fight with players or trade resources within the same planetary system. Players progress by mining resources to upgrade their gear, earning money by documenting plants and animals or trading with aliens, building bases on planets, expanding their space fleets, or following the story about a mysterious entity called The Atlas.
Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, wanted to create a game that reflects the sense of exploration and hope found in science fiction from the 1970s and 1980s. The game was made over three years by a small team at Hello Games, with support from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Many in the gaming industry considered this a bold challenge for a small team, and Murray and Hello Games gained a lot of attention before the game was released.
When No Man's Sky first came out in 2016, it received mixed reviews. Some critics praised the game’s impressive computer-generated universe, while others found the gameplay boring and repetitive. The game was also criticized for missing features that were promised, especially multiplayer. Hello Games faced more criticism because it did not communicate well with players in the months after the release, leading to frustration. Murray later said that Hello Games had not managed the excitement around the game well and had not prepared for the large number of players who joined at launch. Since then, the company has chosen to keep updates a secret until they are nearly ready. The way the game was promoted has been discussed as an example of what to avoid in video game marketing.
After its release, Hello Games has continued to improve and expand No Man's Sky to reach the vision they had for the game. The game has received many free major updates that added missing features, such as multiplayer, and introduced new elements like vehicles on the surface of planets, base-building, space fleet management, cross-platform play, and support for virtual reality. These changes greatly improved the game’s reception, with several websites calling it one of the most remarkable success stories in the gaming industry.
Gameplay
No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game played from a first or third person view. Players can explore, survive, fight, and trade. The player controls a character called a Traveller or Anomaly, who starts on a random planet near a crashed spaceship at the edge of the galaxy. The player has a survival exosuit with a jetpack and a "multitool" that can scan, mine, collect resources, and defend against enemies. The player can repair and refuel their spaceship to travel across planets, space stations, and even jump to other star systems. While the game has no set goals, players may follow a guide called The Atlas to reach the galaxy's center.
A key feature of No Man's Sky is that most parts of the galaxy, including stars, planets, plants, animals, and alien encounters, are created automatically using special computer rules and a single starting number. This 64-bit number creates over 18 quintillion (18,000,000,000,000,000,000) unique planets. The game stores little data on its servers because everything is made using calculations when the player is near it, ensuring all players see the same things in the same locations. Changes made on planets, like mining, are not saved once the player leaves. Before July 2020, the game used separate servers for each platform, but players can now play together across all supported platforms.
Players earn in-game currency called "units" by scanning planets, alien bases, plants, and animals. If a player is the first to discover something, they can earn extra units and have their name recorded for others to see. Players can rename features within limits set by a filter. The game can be played offline, but interacting with The Atlas requires an internet connection.
Survival is important because many planets have dangerous conditions like extreme heat, toxic gases, or storms. Players can find shelter at alien bases or caves, but these places damage the exosuit's protection and can kill the Traveller. Players must collect resources to survive. By finding blueprints, players can craft upgrades for their exosuit, multitool, and spaceship, which help them survive better. These upgrades work together to improve the Traveller's abilities. Each upgrade has limited space, so players must manage their inventory. They can buy more space or new ships and multitools. Many tools and vehicles need fuel made from collected resources.
On planets, the Traveller may be attacked by creatures or Sentinels, robots that protect planets from resource theft or harm to animals. Players can fight back with the multitool's weapons. The game uses a "wanted level" system. At low levels, small drones attack, but at higher levels, larger machines like Walkers or Quads attack. In space, pirates or alien factions may attack if the player has a bad reputation. Players can fight using their ship's weapons. If the Traveller dies on a planet, they respawn at their last save point without their inventory. They can recover lost items if they return to the spot. In "Permadeath" mode, players cannot respawn. If the Traveller dies in space, they respawn at the local space station but lose all ship cargo. They can recover lost items if they return to the spot, though pirates might take them first.
Most star systems have a space station where players can trade resources, tools, and ships, and interact with aliens from three different races or other players. Trading posts on planets offer similar options. Each alien race has its own language, with words that seem random at first. By communicating with them and finding special translation stones on planets, players can learn the language and gain favor. Poor communication may cause aliens to dislike the player, leading to attacks by their space fleets. A free market store at space stations and trading posts lets players trade goods, with some items being more valuable in certain systems.
The game allows players to craft technology upgrades, tools, tradeable resources, building parts, food, and ammo. Blueprints, needed for crafting, are found by digging up data modules and trading them at space stations. Resources are stored in the player's exosuit, ship, freighter, exocraft, nutrient processor, and storage containers. Resources can be processed into other materials using refiners or nutrient processors, allowing players to make food.
No Man's Sky is mainly a single-player game, but players can share discoveries through the Steam Workshop and track friends on the galactic map. The game's creator estimated it might take about 40 hours to reach the galaxy's center without side activities, but players can choose how to play. Players can track friends on the galactic map and system maps. At launch, the game had limited multiplayer features, so PlayStation 4 users did not need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play online.
Since its release, No Man's Sky has received many free updates that added new features, like base building, and improved gameplay, the game engine, and quality of life options.
Plot
The Traveller (the player character) wakes up on a distant planet with no memory and must find their crashed starship. After locating the starship, its computer helps the Traveller repair it and gather resources needed to jump through space quickly to another planetary system. During the journey, the Traveller meets members of three alien species, the Gek, the Korvax, and the Vy'keen, who live in the galaxy. The Traveller is forced by an unknown force to travel to the center of the galaxy.
While heading to the center, the Traveller discovers an unusual event in a nearby system. They visit a special space station called "The Space Anomaly," where strange aliens live. Two aliens, Priest Entity Nada and Specialist Polo, have knowledge greater than other aliens in the galaxy and can speak directly to the Traveller. They describe a mysterious being at the galaxy’s center and guide the Traveller to a nearby black hole that can help them reach the center faster.
As the Traveller continues their journey, they receive messages from an alien named Artemis. Artemis claims to be another Traveller who became trapped on a sunless world after passing through an ancient portal. After finding Artemis’s location and learning it does not exist, the Traveller is told about another Traveller named Apollo.
The Traveller contacts Apollo, who explains the connection between ancient portals and Sentinels, the robotic protectors of planets. After a conflict with the Sentinels, the Traveller passes through a portal and boards a large, unknown spaceship. There, they meet the cosmic being Nada described, named Atlas. The Traveller is sent to a planet where they find Artemis’s grave, revealing Artemis has been dead the entire time. While trying to contact Apollo, the Traveller accidentally reaches a new entity named -null-, who explains Artemis can be saved using a "Mind Ark." The Traveller must decide whether to transfer Artemis’s soul into a machine at the Anomaly or let them remain dead. Either choice leads the Traveller to a portal where they learn Atlas is dying.
The Traveller learns they, like Nada and Polo, are unique beings who understand the galaxy’s structure and nature. The galaxy is revealed to be a computer simulation created by Atlas, and Travellers are entities designed by Atlas to explore the simulation. Nada and Polo are explained to be "errors" that became self-aware and isolated themselves in the Anomaly to help others.
The Traveller explores more Interfaces and communicates directly with Atlas, who explains it does not want to die. To save itself, Atlas sends the Traveller on a mission to collect information and move toward the galaxy’s center. Atlas judges the Traveller’s progress and gives them blueprints for a new Atlas Seed and portal glyphs to help reach the core. As the Traveller approaches the center, they receive messages from Apollo and -null- and help from Nada, Polo, and Atlas Seeds from other Interfaces.
Eventually, the Traveller reaches the galaxy’s center, where they find the final Atlas Interface. The Traveller must choose to either restart the simulation, saving Atlas, or reject the offer.
If the Traveller rejects the offer, the story ends, and the Traveller can explore the galaxy freely. If they choose to restart the simulation, Atlas resets the galaxy and creates a new Traveller to begin the journey again. It is revealed this process has happened many times, each time shortening Atlas’s life. Atlas tries to see its future but sees only the hand of its creator on its glass casing. The Traveller is sent to the new galaxy, restarting the game.
The Echoes update added a new alien race. In Worlds Part 2, a new story segment introduces "Purple Star" systems, which include planets with more complex terrain, new planet types like Gas Giants and Water worlds with deep oceans, and new plants and animals. Limiting these changes to new planets avoided disrupting existing player bases, which had been a problem in earlier updates.
Development
No Man's Sky was part of Hello Games' plan to create a large, exciting game while they earned money through their Joe Danger series. The game's first version was made by Sean Murray of Hello Games, who wanted to build a game inspired by the hopeful science fiction stories of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein, as well as the artwork from their books in the 1970s and 1980s. Murray aimed to recreate the feeling of space exploration found in older games that used computer programs to generate game worlds, such as Star Control II, Elite, and Freelancer. The team grew to four people before showing the first preview in December 2013. Around 12 developers worked on the game for three years before its release, with Sony Interactive Entertainment helping with promotion and marketing. Sony officially introduced the game during a press event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, making it the first independently made game to be highlighted at the event.
"Elite used computer programs to generate its world, and many other games at the time did the same, like Star Control and Freelancer. It feels like we are returning to those games. We are exploring ideas about open spaces, vastness, and freedom."
The game's engine uses specific computer programs, such as mathematical rules, to create a wide variety of natural shapes and structures. Artwork created by human artists is also used and changed to fit the game. The game's sounds, including background noises and music, are also made using computer programs that start with samples created by audio designer Paul Weir and the British music group 65daysofstatic.
Release
No Man's Sky was first introduced at the VGX Awards in December 2013. After this, the game received a lot of attention from game news outlets. Hello Games asked for help from a publisher and caught the interest of Sony Interactive Entertainment (which was then called Sony Computer Entertainment). Sony offered to help fund the game's development, but Hello Games only asked for money to help with advertising and publishing. Sony showed the game at a media event during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 (E3). Before this, no game made by an independent developer had ever been shown at such a major event.
Before the 2015 Paris Games Week in October 2015, people talked about the possibility that No Man's Sky would be released during Sony's press conference. However, Murray and Sony denied these rumors. Instead, Sony used their press conference to announce that the game would be released in June 2016 for the PlayStation 4.
The game's planned release date for the week of June 21, 2016, was announced in March 2016. At the same time, preorders for both the PlayStation 4 and Windows versions began. Hello Games also said the PlayStation 4 version would be sold in both a standard and "Limited Edition" version, published by Sony, along with a digital version. About a month before the planned release, Sony and Hello Games announced the release would be delayed until August 2016. Murray explained that the extra time would allow the team to improve certain parts of the game to meet their standards. Hello Games decided not to present the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 in June 2016 so they could focus on improving it. Murray said, "We get one shot to make this game and we can't mess it up." The game was finalized on July 7, 2016, and released on August 9, 2016.
The original release date in the United Kingdom was August 12, two days after the rest of Europe. However, this was changed to August 10 because Sony made a new deal with retailers to allow the game to be released at the same time in both regions. Two weeks before the release, the worldwide Windows version was delayed slightly to August 12, 2016. Murray said through Twitter that they wanted to release the Windows version at the same time globally, but this was difficult due to the way the PlayStation 4 market worked in different regions. The extra time was used to add technical features for the Windows version, such as support for multiple monitors.
The limited edition retail version includes an art book and a comic written by Dave Gibbons, James Swallow, and Angus McKie. Sony had previously shown interest in creating companion fiction for the game, and Murray worked with Gibbons to develop this. Swallow helped with some of the in-game story. A special "Explorer's Edition" for the Windows version, published by iam8bit, included a small model of one of the game's spacecraft and other materials. Sony also released a limited edition bundle with No Man's Sky and a custom face plate for the PlayStation 4 in Europe.
The New Yorker included No Man's Sky in their 2015 The New Yorker Festival as part of their Tech@Fest event, which focused on how technology and culture connect. On October 2, 2015, Murray appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and demonstrated the game.
In the weeks before the game's release, Sony released four videos that showed the main activities in the game: exploring, fighting, trading, and surviving. Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe also released a television advertisement for the game featuring comedian Bill Bailey.
Hello Games had legal discussions with Sky Group (which was previously called Sky plc) over the use of the word "Sky" in the game's name. Sky had previously defended their trademark against Microsoft's use of "SkyDrive." The issue was resolved in June 2016, allowing Hello Games to keep the name.
A few weeks before the game's launch, it was reported that No Man's Sky used the superformula, which was developed by Dr. Johan Gielis in 2003 and later patented by Gielis through a Dutch company called Genicap. Murray had mentioned the superformula in an interview with The New Yorker during development. Genicap said they wanted to create a software tool using the superformula for their own products and believed Hello Games might be using it in the game. They said they did not want to stop the game's launch and considered it "very impressive," but they wanted to talk with Hello Games about the formula. Murray said the game did not use the superformula and planned to meet with Genicap to discuss the matter. The patent expired in 2020.
Two weeks before the release, a Reddit user bought a leaked copy of the game for the PlayStation 4 on eBay for about $1,250 and shared gameplay videos online. Other users claimed to have leaked copies and shared their own videos. Some of these videos included complaints about the game, such as frequent crashes and a shorter time to complete the game than Hello Games had claimed. Fans worried the game might not be as good as expected. Murray asked people waiting for the game to avoid sharing spoilers, saying, "We've spent years filling No Man's Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself."
Some retailers released the game before the official street date, and players, including journalists from Kotaku and Polygon, streamed their first playthroughs starting on August 5, 201
Reception
The first time No Man's Sky was shown at the 2013 VGX awards, it was widely praised as the most exciting part of the event. Its presentation at E3 2014 also received similar praise, with many critics saying it "stole the show." The game won awards for "Best Original Game" and "Best Independent Game" from a group of game critics. It also received a "Special Commendation for Innovation" for its creative ideas.
When the game was released, it received "mixed or average" reviews, according to Metacritic. Later, when it was released on Xbox One, it received "generally favorable reviews." OpenCritic said the game was fairly well-received, with 36% of critics recommending it. Many praised the game's use of procedural generation to create a vast universe, but some said the gameplay could become repetitive and boring. One critic, Jake Swearingen, wrote, "You can create 18.6 quintillion unique planets, but you can't create 18.6 quintillion unique things to do."
Some criticism came from the limits of procedural generation. While the game's engine can create many different planets, it uses a limited set of pre-designed assets, such as basic creature shapes or environments. These assets can be used up quickly, even with variations. An analysis of the game's code showed that Hello Games planned to add new assets through updates. A game writer, Alissa McAloon, said that with more artists, the game could expand its content. Kate Compton, who worked on procedural generation in Spore, called this issue "procedural oatmeal," meaning that even with many variations, the results still feel similar. She noted that the game lacked a sense of uniqueness, a problem researchers are trying to solve. A writer named Ben Kuchera suggested that No Man's Sky might improve over time, like Destiny, a game that received poor reviews at first but later improved with updates.
Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade said the Switch version of the game was one of the best for Nintendo's console. Reilly from Nintendo Life was surprised by how well the game worked on Switch, though some visual quality was lost. Both praised the game, but noted that multiplayer mode was missing and might be added later.
The game's first soundtrack, "No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe," was released in August 2016. It received positive reviews. The first 10 tracks were created specifically for the game and used in its procedural music system. The final 6 tracks were generated by the game's music system and chosen for the album. A writer from The Verge said the soundtrack felt like a continuation of the band's earlier work but with a stronger science-fiction theme. Another writer gave the album an 8 out of 10 rating, calling it one of the band's best works.
On September 18, 2025, a second soundtrack, "No Man's Sky: Journeys," was released. It includes 32 tracks made from loops and snippets created for the game's music system. Some tracks include spoken dialogue not found in the game, possibly from a character named The Atlas. The album was released by Laced Records and created by 65daysofstatic and Hello Games' audio designer, Paul Weir.
Within a day of its launch, Hello Games reported that players had registered over 10 million unique species, more than the number of species found on Earth. On the first day of its Windows release, the game had over 212,000 players on Steam, more than many other games. In the UK, the game's physical sales were the second-highest for a PlayStation 4 title, after "Uncharted 4." However, sales dropped sharply in the following weeks, with Steam player numbers falling to around 2,100 by September 2016. This drop was unusually fast compared to other games.
The game was the most downloaded title on the PlayStation Store in August 2016. According to NPD Group, it was the second-highest-selling game in North America by revenue that month. SuperData Research said it was the second-highest-grossing game in digital sales across all consoles and sixth for PC. Valve reported that the game was among the top 12 highest-grossing games on Steam in 2016. Steam Spy estimated that over 823,000 copies were sold in 2016 for more than $43 million in revenue. After updates and the Xbox One release in 2018, the game earned about $24 million globally. At the 2019 Game Developers Conference, a representative said sales of the "Next" update were comparable to those of a large AAA game at launch. When the game was added to the Xbox Game Pass in 2020, Hello Games reported over one million new players joined within a month.
Player numbers on Steam often increase briefly after major updates.
Backlash over marketing
No Man's Sky was first shown at the 2013 VGX event, and during its development, the game was widely promoted across the video game industry, creating a lot of excitement. Matt Kamen from Wired UK called No Man's Sky "perhaps one of, if not the, most hyped indie titles in the history of gaming." Much of the attention focused on the game's large scale, created using a method called procedural generation, and the small size of the Hello Games team working on it. No Man's Sky was seen as a game that could change the industry, challenging the usual way major game projects are made, which some said had become too focused on money and comfort. The game was compared to Minecraft for its potential to influence the industry, but some, like David Sims from The Atlantic, noted that Minecraft took years to become popular, while No Man's Sky faced high expectations from the start. Nathan Lawrence from IGN described No Man's Sky as a space flight simulator game that was easy to learn and enjoyable to play, compared to other similar games like Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen.
The game's design, which allowed players to explore a nearly endless universe, created a lot of excitement. For example, Hello Games first said their system would create 4.3 billion planets using a 32-bit key. When players doubted this, Hello Games changed their plan to use a 64-bit number, creating 18 quintillion planets to prove their idea. Some compared No Man's Sky to the 2008 game Spore, which also used procedural generation to create new creatures and worlds. However, Spore's final version had fewer features than expected, and some critics were cautious about No Man's Sky because of this.
Kris Graft from Gamasutra said many players and journalists had high hopes for No Man's Sky, expecting it to be the best space simulator, the best multiplayer action shooter, and the best pure exploration game. Kyle Orland from Ars Technica noted that unlike Spore or Fable, which made big promises but did not deliver, Hello Games was more realistic about what they could achieve. Orland said some players and journalists added their own expectations to the game's features. Rami Ismail from Vlambeer said Hello Games and Sony's marketing campaign was good at explaining abstract ideas like scale and size to a wide audience. Ben Kuchera from Polygon agreed but said the marketing might have become too much, as players did not fully understand the game's limits before it launched. Murray, the game's creator, acknowledged that fans had very high expectations, but he said Hello Games tried to be honest about what the game was during marketing. On the day before release, Murray warned players that No Man's Sky might not match their expectations from trailers and described it as a "very chill game" that felt like stepping into a sci-fi story. He believed the game would have a very mixed response from players.
Before its release, No Man's Sky had a dedicated fan group that met in a subreddit to share updates. Sam Zucchi from Kill Screen said fans waiting for the game were like a religion, trusting Hello Games to deliver something never seen in video games before: exploring a nearly infinite universe.
When the game was delayed from June to August 2016, Murray and Kotaku writer Jason Schreier, who first reported the delay, received death threats. Murray responded with humor, and other journalists saw this as a growing problem between the hype from marketing and the intense excitement of fans. Phil Hartup from New Statesman said marketing that creates high demand for news about a game can lead fans to react negatively to delays. Phil Owen from TheWrap blamed video game marketers for focusing more on creating a cult-like following than selling games.
After its release, No Man's Sky received mixed reviews from critics and mostly negative feedback from players. Many players were upset about missing features and technical problems, especially on PlayStation 4 and Windows versions. A list of promised features from the Hello Games subreddit appeared a week after launch. By October 2016, the game had one of the worst ratings on Steam, with over 70,000 users giving it negative reviews. At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Murray admitted the studio had underestimated how many players would get the game at launch. They expected about 10,000 players but saw over 500,000, causing server issues and overwhelming their support team. Hello Games announced a new program called "Hello Labs" to fund other games using procedural generation or experimental gameplay. Murray said they planned to support one or two games at a time, with one already in the program.
One major missing feature in the initial release was multiplayer support. Hello Games had said during development that No Man's Sky would include multiplayer, but this was not in the final version.