No Man’s Sky, only a week away from its releases on PS4 and PC, has been undergoing a rash of news stories lately with the incredibly anticipated space exploration game having multiple copies leak before general release.
This has been compounded by the way that almost no review code has been sent out, so reviewers feel justified in getting these early release copies so they can inform their readership about the game.
This has meant a select few press members and lucky public players have been able to begin the process of exploring the universe. Ordinarily, I’d have no problem with this. Fair access is fair access.
But, in this particular game, the first people to stumble upon any given in-game entity get to name it. Forever.
So now the problem is that it’s entirely possible a player starts as soon as the game releases, and they can’t even get the joy of properly exploring and charting the first place they come across.
As a result of this, the main programmer at Hello Games has confirmed that yes, servers will be wiped at general release. To ensure an even playing field.
Servers are being wiped on Sunday pic.twitter.com/JTmzabmU1R
— Harry Denholm (@HarryDenholm) August 5, 2016
Even more than this, the confusion around the release dates has been addressed by the face of the company, Sean Murray.
PC NMS release will now be global and will be August 12th worldwide. It's so important we get it right and make the best version we can
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 5, 2016
The Steam release of the game on PC will now be released worldwide on August 12th. The PlayStation 4 release is unaffected due to physical retail releases, so Europe will achieve space exploration on the 10th, and the US only a few hours earlier, on the 9th.
Which may be just enough time for them to plant flags in everything. As they do.
I'm here tonight adding support for 21:9 monitors. We don't even have one. I've stuck some cardboard to the side of mine ¯_(シ)_/¯
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 5, 2016
As you can see above though, the delay is being used to add final details to improve things for all players. So it’s not like it’s arbitrary.
Look. I do get it. This game is possibly overhyped to the point of silliness. Of course people want it as soon as possible. No one likes being delayed. I’m sure Hello Games don’t.
So maybe we should all just give them a little slack in their release week. At least until the game is actually out. It’s only a few more days. Hello Games are clearly doing what they think is best for their players.
Maybe it’s time for a little trust.