No Man’s Sky

Below is a compilation of all the No Man's Sky news, IGN First coverage, trailers, and gameplay that has been released over the last three years, minus any of the leaked content sneaking online this week.

Here’s everything you need to know about No Man’s Sky.

No Man’s Sky Announced

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Hello Games, the small, Guildford-based British studio behind the Joe Danger series, first teased No Man’s Sky in December 2013 with an announcement trailer that premiered at the VGX Awards.

The video established one of the most discussed elements of No Man’s Sky with the promise of procedural everything. It also introduced us to the bright, colorful worlds of No Man’s Sky vast universe and its many unique planets.

Hello Games Hit By Floods

The excitement surrounding the then-recently announced No Man’s Sky quickly turned to concern near the end of December 2013, when creator Hello Games had their office completely flooded by the River Wey.

“Hello Games has been totally flooded,” the studio reported on Twitter. “Everything in the office has pretty much been lost.”

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With flood insurance refusing to cover the damages done to their office, it seemed Hello Games was out of luck. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer even reached out to see if there was anything he could do to help. But Hello Games was determined to move forward, addressing the post-flood future of No Man’s Sky in a blog post by Sean Murray in January 2014.

“We lost all our PCs, laptops, equipment, furniture, dev-kits, work in the blink of an eye,” wrote Murray. “It’s obviously horrible, but it’s all part of our little indie journey.”

Sony Debuts No Man’s Sky at E3 2014

Sony officially unveiled No Man’s Sky during their E3 2014 press conference, with a gameplay trailer that showed off some of the No Man’s Sky universe’s unique range of wildlife — including alien dinosaurs — as well as interstellar dogfighting. Sony confirmed that No Man’s Sky would make its console debut on PlayStation 4, but a release date was still up in the air.

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Sean Murray took the stage after the brief gameplay trailer to discuss No Man’s Sky a bit more, describing it as a sci-fi game inspired by the kinds of sci-fi he grew up with, including Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

“We’ve created a procedural universe; it’s infinite and it’s one that everyone can share,” Murray explained. “We’re gonna start every player on a different planet, so no two people will have the same experience.”

Murray then segued into another trailer for No Man’s Sky, this one showing off environments ranging from foggy planets to bright beaches, dense jungles, and stark, alien deserts.The trailer concluded with a promise that would continue to entice players for the years to follow: “Every planet procedural. Every planet unique. Every planet unexplored.”

IGN later sat down with Sean Murray to dive deeper into what No Man’s Sky’s vast universe has store for players. Here, we learned that you’d be able to upgrade your ship, scan and upload information about newly discovered flora and fauna, and fight or flee from space pirates. We learned that the “story” of No Man’s Sky will be entirely your own; emergent rather than authored.

Murray also spoke of just how large the planets in No Man’s Sky will be: “If you want to try and take an entire planet and make it a wasteland I think you're underestimating how big a planet is,” Murray told IGN. “If you think of planet Earth and walking around on the surface killing every living creature it's going to take you a long time, but maybe someone out there will try to do it.”

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No Man’s Sky won our Best of E3 2014 awards for Best PlayStation 4 Game and Coolest Tech.

No Man’s Sky Considered for PC

In August 2014, an early copy of the September issue of Edge Magazine revealed that Sean Murray wanted to eventually bring No Man’s Sky to PC.

"We've always had PC in mind,” said Sean Murray.

Vastness of No Man’s Sky’s Universe Detailed

During Gamescom 2014, Sean Murray spoke with IGN about just how large the No Man’s Sky universe is.

According to Murray, it would take five billion years to explore every planet in the game if you visited each world for just one second. No Man’s Sky didn’t used to be that big — in the early days, Hello Games was using a 32-bit number to generate planets, which produced enough to occupy only about five thousand years of exploration.

They’ve since doubled their efforts, now using a 64-bit number that generates two to the power of 64 planets. The sun will burn out before anyone has time to visit every single one.

There was nothing new from the game itself at Gamescom that year, but Murray did tell us that they would “have something big to show soon.”

More No Man’s Sky Gameplay Demoed During E3 2015

Sean Murray took the stage during Sony’s E3 2015 press conference for a live stage demo of No Man’s Sky.

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During the demo, Murray took viewers into the “universe-sized sandbox” of No Man’s Sky, charging with a newly purchased ship immediately into the midst of a space battle between two warring factions.

He also revealed a map of the solar system, showing off the scale of the galaxy he currently occupied, before selecting one of the many planets available to explore.

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Throughout the brief demo, Murray carved away at a cliffside, evaded a hostile Sentinel, swam with alien fish, and uploaded information on his findings to his beacon.

No Man’s Sky Confirmed for PC

Among the many other things we learned about No Man’s Sky during E3 2015, including details about crafting, beacons, The Atlas, wanted levels, Sentinels, and more, Sean Murray also confirmed No Man’s Sky for PC. But still no release date!