No Man’s Sky 4.0 launches later this week, and while the update won’t be as big as the 2.0 “Next” and 3.0 “Beyond” updates, it will still represent a fairly major shakeup for the procedurally-generated space exploration game.
This time around, the focus will be more on streamlining the player experience and providing more options for different types of players. As such, in a new Eurogamer interview with Hello Games boss Sean Murray, he promises ver. 4.0 will bring refinement to the game’s tutorial. A new “Relaxed Mode” is also being added, for players who just want to see the game’s content without a lot of grinding.
“When we [originally] launched we made the game a little bit more difficult and more grindy, perhaps, because we didn’t have the breadth of content [we do now]. But now people come in and they want to see a mech, they want to see the story, they want to go to the Nexus and things like that, and so we wanted to find that right balance for new players. […] [Relaxed Mode is a] very fun version of No Man’s Sky where the focus is on exploration, less on just surviving and grinding, [where it’s easier] to see the six years of content that’s there.”
Ah, but it isn’t just beginners who are being catered to. Murray also promises Survival Mode is getting even more daunting and an expansion for players’ inventories is coming. Meanwhile, custom games, that will allow you to adjust everything from controls, to difficulty, to the way the universe works are also being added.
One other thing coming is a Nintendo Switch version of the game, which is something a lot of folks doubted could be done right. Per Murray, the Switch version is largely on par with other versions of the game, with a couple exceptions – there will be no settlements and no multiplayer. Murray explained why he thought it was okay to launch No Man’s Sky on Switch without multiplayer…
“Multiplayer in No Man’s Sky is important, I love it as a feature, it’s great… [but] it’s not our most important feature compared to other games that have multiplayer. A lot of people play No Man’s Sky effectively alone, single-player, and [Switch] is less focused on multiplayer as well, because of the nature that you’re playing it on a train, you’re playing on the toilet, out and about or in bed at night or whatever. Loads of people play multiplayer games on Switch… but it’s a smaller percentage, and so our attitude is release, and see how people interact with it, and see what’s important to them and react to that.”
No Man’s Sky can be played now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. Version 4.0 and the Switch port of the game both launch on October 7.
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