Highly Anticipated No Man’s Sky Space Exploration Game Is Finally Finished

It’s happened. No Man’s Sky just went gold. I’m so incredibly proud of this tiny team. 4 years of emotions pic.twitter.com/YJoI6JVgxq

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) July 7, 2016

Announced way back at the end of 2013, just after the launch of the current generation of game consoles, No Man’s Sky and its expansive, lush universe captured our imaginations—and held on to them mercilessly for almost the next three entire years. Now, with the game’s release date finally approaching, developer Hello Games founder Sean Murray has confirmed that the epic project is now finished.

A lot has happened in those long, intervening years that we’ve all had to wait, including partial exclusivity going to the PlayStation 4 (there will also be a PC version), frivolous lawsuits, and worst of all, delays. Those days are over now, though, as the game’s “gold” status means there are no more changes to be made and no more reason to delay it barring something completely absurd happening.

Why are we so excited about it, though? No Man’s Sky promises a universe so huge that we’ll never be able to fully explore it, thanks to procedural generation. That’s a technique that allows the game’s software and “seed numbers” to generate its planets and stars without the need for human beings to individually design each one, and it’s enabled a universe of more than 18 quintillion planets within the game. They’re not just random worlds, either; once a player knows a planet’s coordinates, they can travel to it again and find the same world, since the coordinates function as a piece of code that tells the game the specs of the planet.

Beyond all the technical reasons that it should give us all something truly unique and amazing to experience, it’s also really pretty to look at, which doesn’t hurt. Players are tasked with surviving in this vast universe along with exploring and engaging in combat as it’s called for. No Man’s Sky will be available on August 9 for PlayStation 4 and PC.

(via The Next Web, image via Hello Games)

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.