No Man's Sky Adds Multiplayer This July Alongside Xbox One Release

On July 24th, No Man's Sky's "Next" update will hit alongside the game's release on Xbox One, most notably adding a full multiplayer experience to the spacefaring survival game.

Additionally, developer Hello Games shared the new cover art for the title, which will be the above picture, but obviously on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC cases.

Sean Murray, programmer on the game – and its promotional face whom you will recognize from its one of many E3 stage demos – accompanied the announcement with the following statement:

"We were delighted by the reaction to Next, even though we just shared the name so far, it means so much to see that people were already pumped about it. The reaction that No Man's Sky is coming to Xbox One was lovely too. I'm excited for new players to be able to play such an expanded game from the start."

According to Murray, the UK-based studio has been playtesting multiplayer for the last six months, and in the process, the game has evolved into a very new experience that it thinks players will enjoy. Murray continues:

"For example, you'll be able to explore the universe with your friends, or bump into random travelers," details Murray. "You can help friends to stay alive, or prey on others to survive. Tiny shelters or complex colonies that you build as a team are shared for all players. Fight as a pirate or a wingman in epic space battles with friends and enemies. Race exocraft across weird alien terrains, creating race tracks and trails to share online. That's always been the potential I think everyone could see in what we were making, it's been a lot of hard work, but thanks to team and the community we are so glad to finally able to make it a reality."

Murray notes that he has learned that he prefers making games than talking about them, which makes sense since he was at the heart of the sweeping controversy around the game at launch. But that was the past, and Murray and co. continue to be optimistic about the future, and improve and evolve the game in considerable fashion like it has been the past couple of years.

"This is an incredibly important update for us, but it's also just another step in a longer journey, and we'll continue to support No Man's Sky in this way for the foreseeable future," said Murray. "This will be our biggest update yet and we're pumped to be bringing Xbox players along on the journey with us now too."

No Man's Sky launch on Xbox One will include all three major previous updates – Foundation, Pathfinder, and Atlas Rises – alongside Next, and all of the smaller patches in-between.

The Next update will hit PS4 and PC on the same date, July 24th.