Eight months since No Man’s Sky’s last major update, Hello Games has finally announced a new update for the game.


In a press release today, Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray revealed No Man’s Sky’s next update, called Beyond. The update, Murray wrote, will make sizable changes to the game similar to last July’s Next. The first of these will be what Murray called “No Man’s Sky Online.” While Murray wrote that he doesn’t consider No Man’s Sky an MMO, No Man’s Sky Online will include “a radical new social and multiplayer experience which empowers players everywhere in the universe to meet and play together.”

While details about No Man’s Sky Online are slim, Murray wrote, “We will talk more about each of the three major components of Beyond when we know we can be precise, and look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.”


Since the Next update, players have been able to play online with each other, as they expected to be able to at the game’s release. However, the game still lacks features like a messaging system and a friends list, which would make the communal aspect of the game easier. Murray wrote that Beyond will have “many recognisable online elements… These changes are an answer to how we have seen people playing since the release of Next, and is something we’ve dreamed of for a long time.”

Hopefully, Beyond will strengthen the already prominent social aspects of the game. Players who have been enthusiastically playing No Man’s Sky have been working around things that are missing in the game, creating their own communities on Reddit and Discord. While this community is vibrant, I can only imagine how much more thriving it could be if No Man’s Sky fills out its roster of features with ones that encourage more social gameplay.

In the press release, Murray said that each update to No Man’s Sky has been more successful than the last, Next especially so. “It went on to bring enjoyment to millions of new players,” he wrote, “and it helped to change the legacy of this game we care so much about… To some NEXT may have felt like a natural end-point for our journey, but for us it was another step on a longer voyage.”