Hello from Hello Games!

We are busily working on Next for No Man’s Sky, but wanted to share a little news from behind-the-scenes. Today, we’re 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 (see above) and announce the release date: No Man’s Sky will launch on Xbox One July 24.

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 that No Man’s Sky is coming to Xbox One was lovely too. I’m excited for new players to be able to play such an expanded game from the start.

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

For example, you’ll be able to explore the universe with your 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 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 just did my first interview in a couple of years with Inside Xbox to talk a little bit about No Man’s Sky coming to Xbox One.

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 launch of No Man’s Sky on Xbox One will include all three major updates — Foundation, Pathfinder, and Atlas Rises — along with Next and dozens of smaller patches.

No Man’s Sky has a lot we’re going to surprise people with the Next update and I can’t wait until we can share more as we lead up to launch on July 24.