No Man’s Sky NEXT – Multiplayer and Release Date

Hello Everyone,

We are busily working on No Man’s Sky NEXT, but wanted to share a little news about our upcoming update.

Today we are letting people know that you’ll be able to play No Man’s Sky as a full multiplayer experience with your friends in NEXT. We wanted to share our new cover art too.

We are also announcing the release date. No Man’s Sky NEXT is coming as a free update to PC and PS4 on July 24th. Xbox One launches on July 24th.

We were delighted by the reaction to NEXT, even though we just shared the name so far, it means so much to see that people were already pumped about it. The reaction to coming to Xbox and weGame was really lovely too. I am excited for new players to be able to play such an expanded game from the start, as well as experienced players having a fresh experience.

We’ve been playtesting multiplayer for the last 6 months, and the game has evolved into a very new experience that we think the community will enjoy.

You’ll be able to explore the universe with a small group of friends, or bump into random travelers. You can help friends to stay alive, or prey on others to survive. Tiny shelters or complex colonies that you build as a team are shared for all players. Fight as a pirate or a wingman in epic space battles with friends and enemies. Race exocraft across weird alien terrains, creating race tracks and trails to share online.

That’s always been the potential I think everyone could see in what we were making, it’s been a lot of hard work, but thanks to the team and the community we are so glad to finally able to make it a reality.

Something I’ve learned is that I much prefer making games to talking about them. I avoid it as much as I can now, but I had to do my first interview in a couple of years with Inside Xbox to talk a little bit about NEXT, which you can see here:

This is an incredibly important update for us, but it’s also just another step in a longer journey, and we’ll continue to support No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable future.

This will be our biggest update yet and we’re pumped to be bringing Xbox players along on the journey with us now too. The Xbox One launch of No Man’s Sky will include all 4 major updates (Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises and NEXT), along with dozens of smaller patches. 505 Games will distribute the physical Xbox One version worldwide.

Thank you so much,

Sean