Hello Games has a way of being very mysterious about No Man’s Sky updates. This is probably a result of the negative backlash the game received at launch, after having become one of the most hyped video games in recent memory.
Still, it can be a little disorienting to be a No Man’s Sky player and suddenly have a new update thrust upon you with little warning. If I remember correctly, the Desolation update was announced the same day it released. Typically, we only get advance notice if the update is set to be universe-shattering, like Next and Beyond, and in those cases we’ll get months of notice.
So what in the galaxy is Hello Games doing by announcing No Man’s Sky Origins with several days of advanced notice? This is way out of character for them.
The announcement itself, though, is quite vague, referencing the Foundation update and closing by saying, “This update will be another small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.”
What does this mean? I have no idea. The title Origins suggests that maybe we’ll get some additional lore about the beginnings of this simulated galaxy, or maybe about the various races that inhabit it? Is this the first step in a longer journey that delivers us a series of new revelations about the game world?
Or maybe this is referring to the game’s original look, which included a lot more color variety (though they made great strides in this area with the Visions update).
There was actually a No Man’s Sky: Atlas Rises mod called Origins, which sought to bring back the “original vision” of the game as showcased in the much-talked-about E3 2014 trailer, so it could be hinting at that. Then again, most of the features fans pointed out as being absent from the game based on this trailer have been retrospectively added to No Man’s Sky over the past four years.
So really, who knows what this update will be all about? It sounds like the update itself will be small, but it will signal a shift in No Man’s Sky‘s direction going forward, and that has me wondering just what that new direction will be.
In case you want to refresh your memory about what that E3 2014 trailer looked like, here it is, in all its blissful, hopeful, imagination-bending glory: