Hello Games is back again with another mammoth No Man's Sky update, this time dubbed 'Fractal'. While a fair chunk of today's update is focused on Sony's PSVR2 headset, there's plenty of stuff coming to the Xbox version, which is still a part of the Xbox Game Pass library at the time of the update's launch!
A brand new Expedition called 'Utopia' is one of the big additions here, an Expedition that "challenges players to work together and rebuild an abandoned solar system for the mysterious Utopia Foundation."
No Man's Sky Fractal also introduces a brand-new starship called the Utopia Speeder, the new 'Wonders Catalog' that chronicles your biggest NMS discoveries, and a "totally reworked" options menu with new accessibility features.
The team at Hello Games says that 2023 will be an even bigger year than 2022 for No Man's Sky, which in itself saw five major updates arrive for the game. The full patch notes for the Fractal update are included in the team's blog post - it's an absolutely huge list with loads of fixes and changes across all platforms!
Are you still playing No Man's Sky on Xbox Game Pass? Let us know in the comments below.
[source news.xbox.com]
Comments 12
I didn’t expect NMS to keep getting better… really what all games need
I once felt to ask how this game keeps getting free updates all these years later, sales alone can’t possibly keep the studio alive, but Game Pass likely is the key to its financing. Have not checked but would not be shocked if it’s also on PSN.
@Kaloudz even if they are, an in-production sequel does finance itself, it only adds to their expenses. Constantly being part of services like Game Pass and PSN’s second tier (whatever it’s called, extra?) can, though, keep the money flowing.
Feels like a labor of love - maybe Phil Spencer plays NMS and assists lol
@Tharsman How does GTAV keep topping charts? More people keep buying it.
Heck, I bought this game on XB for $20 in 2018. Then it's on GP. And then last week I bought it full price at $60 on PS for VR2, and then today it's on sale for $30, so I overpayed, assuming they wouldn't put it on sale for a while on PS since it's VR launch. Oops.
So I've payed $80 for the game now....
@NEStalgia GTA tops the charts and sells ridiculous numbers of units at full price all the time.
How often do you see No Man Sky chart? I seriously doubt the game moves significant number of units still.
@Tharsman Well, GTA is a unique snowflake even among unique snowflakes and I don't think even Rockstar can explain their sales on that at this point.
But I'm betting NMS sells reasonably constantly. Heck they just broke the Switch market. That's something right there.
@NEStalgia Of course Rockstar can explain it, they are not selling GTAV, they are selling GTA Online that happens to be packaged with GTAV. Even with all those sales, they milk users with MTX.
NMS does not MTX their players (as far as I know.) Their finances are a complete mystery, IMO.
@Tharsman I think that's the difference of a private company steadily selling a popular product long after initial ROI vs a public company expected to multiply quarterlies by exponents YoY. You make a profit, you pay everyone and pay for the operational costs, vs needing to generate unlimited revenue from thin air in ever increasing amounts.
I have yet to play this game. Some day.
@Tharsman I checked out their website hellogames.org and they seem to have made a lot of money and are very small. And they are hiring lol
We've become so accustomed to being milked dry on games that we see faults with a developer trying to continuously deliver a better game with ever improving content. HG has come along way on this game. It went from literally busted to a widely played game with a ridiculous amount of free content.
Maybe knowing how bad they bombed the first time and being a small dev, they are focused on making it bigger and better for a smaller profit margin. I'd say they have the right approach. I certainly hope they don't get bought out and turned into another MTX game factory.
Would anyone have faulted them for charging even a small fee for the most recent expedition after so much free content?
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