No Man’s Sky is coming out on August 9 and the hotly anticipated game brings with it one of the largest game universes ever created. It’s got quintillions of planets, all built by algorithm. No one will ever discover them all—not in a lifetime, probably not in a thousand lifetimes. The game is coming to both PC and PS4, and considering its monumental scope, it’s worth asking: Will both the PC and PS4 versions be the same universe?
No Man’s Sky Gameplay: One Universe, Now And Forever?
As best we can tell, there’s still no definitive answer to whether both versions of No Man’s Sky will take place in the same universe. Hello Games bossman Sean Murray has intimated that they could be on separate servers, with crossplay available, but we haven’t heard anything definitive in months. And honestly, from what we know of the game’s back end, it could go either way. A single 64-bit seed controls and creates the entirety of what we see, but we don’t know whether it will be shared between PS4 and PC versions. But the game’s development is based around that seed and that algorithm.
That’s why players don’t have to play online. The seed controls it all. Any player who goes to the same coordinates will discover the same planet, whether they’re online or off. Uploading that world or star system to the universal Atlas doesn’t create the planet for everyone else; it simply codifies it as a part of known space. So it seems like both platforms could use the same seed.
That’s what’s so impressive about No Man’s Sky. The game can essentially be massively persistent even when players aren’t online, since interactions between players will be rare to begin with and aren’t a cornerstone of the gameplay—although what will end up emerging remains to be seen. And for that same reason, there aren’t any of the usual technical hurdles for having connectivity between the PC and console editions. Both operate off of the same algorithm, and if crossplay is available, they presumably have the same seed. So player discoveries on either platform could be codified to the Atlas… no 24/7 access to massively multiplayer servers required.
On the other hand, it would be pretty interesting if both platforms have separate servers. The biggest mystery about No Man’s Sky isn’t about the gameplay or what we can discover out there, but simply how the process of discovery will take place. That’s something that will take place in big part outside of the game itself; it’s the sort of game that will quickly generate its own community. Cross-playability would help that community, but since the game is very much not a multiplayer game anyway… it really doesn’t matter that much. When it comes to exploring No Man’s Sky, we’re all in this together—even if we never see each other.
