Summary
No Man’s Sky’scomeback story has reached new heights. For the first time since its 2016 launch, the game has reached the illustrious, seemingly impossible “Very Positive” onSteam.
In its eight-year lifespan, the game has had a turnaround for the ages, withconsistent free updatesmaking it virtually unrecognizable from the way it launched. This new milestone is vindication for the development team and a perfect indicator of just how good of a job they’ve done.
No Man’s Sky Hits “Very Positive” On Steam
When No Man’s Sky launched, the game was troubled.
There were strong indications of this straight off the bat that something wasn’t right when no early review copies were sent to the press or creators. Then, the game came out and it was immediately torn apart. Broken promises hurtSean MurrayandHello Games, with the original product appearing as nothing like what was sold by the team.
This led to high-levelPlayStationexecutives, like then-Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, commenting, saying that it “sounded like he was promising more features in the game from dayone,” and ultimately culminated in fans leaving negative reviews on Steam. In 2016, at best, the game had “Mostly Negative” reviews on Valve’s platform.
Fast-forward to 2024, and after eight long years of stellar updates, No Man’s Skyhas hit “Very Positive” for the first time, withcreator Sean Murray thanking fans on Twitter. In its first four months, No Man’s Sky receivedover 56,000 negative reviews. And, while it did receive just over 26,000 positive reviews in its first month, those dried up quickly, with the game receiving only 1,300 more in the following three months. This left No Man’s Sky with an over 2:1 negative to positive review ratio.
To hit “Very Positive,” a game needs over 80 percent positive reviews, which is exactly what the game just managed to hit. Given that it now has well over 240k reviews, it’s hard to maintain a near-perfect run of appraisals for the best part of seven and a half years. No Man’s Sky’s review score has been bolstered by an influx of “Very Positive” reviews following the release of theWorlds Part 1and Aquarius updates, with over 15,000 players responding positively to the updates.
While it would have been easy for Hello Games to abandon ship early on, it did the opposite, buckling down and fine-tuning the game to what it’s become now. Multiple massive updates launched, fundamentally changing the game, includingWaypoint,Beyond, andOrigins, which have all contributed to No Man’s Sky resurgence.
With no end and Worlds Part 2 in sight, it’ll be fascinating to see where the game goes from here, especially given thatLight No Fireis now in development from the studio. The studio that cheekily madea reference to the new game in No Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Sky
WHERE TO PLAY
Lose yourself in a vast sci-fi odyssey as you explore a near-infinite, procedurally generated universe.
Set out from the edge of the Euclid galaxy and carve out your own interstellar existence in a vast universe teeming with life, danger and near-endless mystery.
No Man’s Sky is a hugely-ambitious, heavily-stylised, sci-fi adventure that spans entire galaxies all brought to life with procedural generation. Travel through an endless array of increasingly diverse and dangerous star systems, prospecting for rare materials, trading with alien life, populate planets and searching for clues to the meaning of the universe’s mysterious existence.
How you survive is up to you. Assemble entire fleets of dreadnought-class freighters and tear across the universe; build sprawling habitable bases across planet surfaces, beneath the ground or under the ocean; buy and upgrade your own weapons and star ships and do battle with outlaw space pirates, hostile alien fauna or the mysterious sentinel fleets.
The universe is yours to explore - trillions upon trillions of planets, waiting to be discovered.
