After weeks of silence, Hello Games has announced an unexpected new update for No Man’s Sky will be released this week, known as the “Foundation Update.” As many of you probably remember, No Man’s Sky has been surrounded by controversy since shortly before it’s launch, so much controversy in fact that Steam and the game’s developer are currently being investigated by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority which was launched in September. The game quickly went from Most Anticipated Game of 2016 to one of the worst rated games on Steam in a matter of months, largely due to complaints surrounding bugs, graphics quality, and false promises of multiplayer support.
While the announcement from Hello Games today doesn’t state what exactly the Foundation Update does for the game aside from adding “the foundations of base building,” the post does seem to indicate that this update will be the first of many targeted at improving the game based on player feedback received since it’s launch in August.
You can read the full announcement from Hello Games below:
Hello,
This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.
Detailed patch notes will follow, and release will be soon.
Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all here http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release.
In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something.
The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about.
Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.
Thank you,
Hello Games
EDIT (4:00 PM CST 11/25/2016): This article has been updated to include additional details about the history of No Man’s Sky, and the controversy the game has faced since its launch, in order to provide background for our readers who are not familiar with the game’s history.
