Earlier this week, No Man’s Sky finally managed to reach a very positive rating on Steam. It only took eight years and a ridiculous amount of effort to get there, but it turns out that even after this great milestone, the developers aren’t planning to end development anytime soon.
“Our tiny team at Hello Games has grafted and then grafted some more, and although ‘very positive’ might be just a few words, it means an awful lot, especially since we aren’t even close to being finished yet,” engineer programmer Martin Griffiths says. “Thank you to all players who believed in us and those of you who continue to journey with us.”
Griffiths explains that working through all the issues and problematic public reception of No Man’s Sky wasn’t actually as hard as you would think, but that’s mostly thanks to how he was brought up.
“Growing up in a small, pretty rough town in South Wales, I was lucky to have amazing parents who taught me resilience and to try and try again if you initially fail,” Griffiths says. “Shortly after the initial release of No Man’s Sky, I had a meeting with Sean [Murray, founder and managing director of Hello Games] in a pub in Guildford, and everything he said during that lunch echoed what I had been taught as a child. I’m thankful for that synchronicity.”
The unrestricted expectations that surrounded No Man’s Sky may have hindered it at first, but it became apparent rather quickly that the developers were willing to go the extra mile to remedy all the issues. We awarded No Man’s Sky Ongoing Game Award in 2017, and the game also got a nomination for Best Community Support at The Game Awards 2023, although Baldur’s Gate 3 ended up taking home the win in that category.
Over the years, No Man’s Sky introduced multiplayer, brought players countless new quests, and finally added fishing to the game. All the work that has gone into it over the last eight years has been done to either deliver on promises that were made before the game launched or just to show players what was possible. And honestly, I’d say all the work paid off years ago, so I’m impressed that the devs still have more to do.
