Multiplayer in 'No Man's Sky' gets fans' hopes up all over again

The latest update to No Man's Sky contains the first hint at multiplayer the game has seen, and fans are losing their goddamn minds over it.

No Man's Sky, a game about space exploration, released just over a year ago. Many people were disappointed about the game's lack of multiplayer features, which had been promised by developer Hello Games early in development. Today's update brought a handful of improvements and new features, including a limited multiplayer experience, delighting fans and making some excited for future updates.

Here's an overview of update 1.3, called Atlas Rises.

The multiplayer addition to No Man's Sky is very basic: players who run into each other in the vast, procedurally generated galaxy will be able to see each other, but will only appear as little floating orbs. Players near each other can talk over voice chat, but they can't interact in any other way and can only see up to 16 other players at a time.

It's not exactly what most people imagine when they picture multiplayer, but players are pretty excited nonetheless.

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Of course, others haven't forgotten that No Man's Sky didn't deliver on its promises and aren't as quick to forgive Hello Games.

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Others found the very minimal multiplayer not up to their satisfaction.

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Hello Games founder Sean Murray said in a tweet that this update is "another step in a long journey," alluding to future additions to the game and potential improvements for the new multiplayer feature.

Perhaps at some point in the future, No Man's Sky players will be able to see each other flying around in ships, see actual character models, or team up to explore, fight aliens, and collect resources. A gamer can dream.