No Man's Sky Release Delayed But It's Worth The Wait

It takes hundreds of hours to make it to the center of the universe in No Man's Sky, and that time has been extended some more. However, the upcoming space exploration game appears no less a game of the year contender and the wait until August may make it even more so.

The developer, Hello Games, now looks like the house from Home Alone, said Sean Murray, the face of the game and the company. Murray says the staff has had to booby trap the studio because of the "loads of death threats" sent their way.

The Delay

No Man's Sky will be launched for the Playstation and PC on Aug. 9 in North America, Aug. 10 in Europe and on Aug. 12 in the UK. Murray says he wasn't initially at liberty to discuss the change to the game's release date, but on May 27, he was able to offer a few details about the delay.

Fans initially found out about the delay through insider remarks and a GameStop directive instructing employees to cover up the June 21 release date on No Man's Sky posters.

"We understand that this news is disappointing," Murray said in a blog post. "Making this game is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but we are so close now, and we're prepared to make the tough choices to get it right."

Murray didn't offer any specifics as to why the game was delayed, but there's a built-in excuse that covers about everything. No Man's Sky and its 18 quintillion planets are unprecedented in scale and being developed by a team that's smaller than anyone would expect and under an intense amount of expectation.

"To the loyal community who's stuck by our side since the unveiling of No Man's Sky years ago, we hope you'll accept our sincere apology and I am humbly asking that you'll still look forward to exploring our universe despite the slight delay," Murray said.

GOTY, Maybe

Even counting the fans who threw tantrums, most gamers tracking No Man's Sky likely understand just how ambitious of an undertaking the game has been for a studio that has just more than a dozen employees. Relying on Hello Games' algorithms, No Man's Sky will procedurally generate planets and things living on them, and within a system that essentially simulates evolution.

Combined, players will only see about 0.1 percent of No Man's Sky over the life of the game, according to Murray. Players can spend their time building and trading in the seemingly infinite universe, or they can pass the hours plundering and pillaging.

However, the main objective is to trek to the center of the universe. There's a good chance players will never encounter others as they set out from their respective corners of the universe. So there's plenty of opportunity for players to get lost in the world, lost in more than one way.

The planets that aren't too hostile to humans may still derail a player's pilgrimage by losing them in its landscape or losing the locals of the star people who venture into their world.

For those who don't get disoriented and lose their ships in exploring the allure of all that is unseen by the rest of the players, they could get lost and lose sight of the game's primary objective.

No matter how players choose to attack it, No Man's Sky is shaping up to be a black hole for boredom and free time. And if Hello Games can beat and break bugs for a relatively smooth experience, then the gaming community may even end up thanking the studio for delaying the game a few weeks.