After the release of its latest update Frontiers the latest No Man’s Sky expansion which added settlements, expanded base-building options, and so much more, it was finally able to reach the “Mostly Positive” review score rating on steam. This is a huge milestone for the game as upon launch it received “overwhelmingly Negative” reviews and took the company 5 years to achieve this.
When the game launched it was famously plagued with issues. It lacked much to actually do in the game and despite players being told it was a shared universe, two players meeting up at the same spot could not see each other implying it actually wasn’t. Beyond that, reaching the center of the universe offered no finality, only restarting your journey. This was combined with the lack of content showcased for the game making it to the final release.
Founder of Hello Games, Sean Murry took to Twitter to share the good news.
Moving to Mixed took nearly 2 years, moving to Mostly Positive has taken the last 3.
Each all-time % point is exponentially harder. 69% to 70% took nearly 10,000 positive reviews
Never thought we'd be here. We're incredibly grateful for players continued support 🙏
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) September 7, 2021
After the company went dark for several months due to initial outcry, they began work on the game with free expansions and updates that have ultimately seen players get what was initially promised and a whole lot more. Tim Woodley, Head of Publishing at Hello Games stated:
Over the last five years we’ve moved from ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ to ‘Mostly Positive’, it’s an incredible achievement for the team. Moving to ‘Mixed’, which may seem funny to celebrate, took two years of hard work. Moving from Mixed to Mostly Positive has taken the last three years (knowing that any small mistake along the way may result in backlash and negative reviews).
In some ways, it’s easy to dismiss Steam reviews, it’s a bit of meme to share the silly ones, but as a developer, they are undeniably meaningful. For five years now if someone bought No Man’s Sky they had to do it in spite of a red or yellow warning symbol beside our name (and affecting the likelihood algorithm in charge of displaying the name in the first place). The team is really chuffed today at hitting this milestone but we also owe a huge thank you to the community, the players, but also folks like yourself who continue to support us to do this work we enjoy.
Their review score was not the only milestone achieved following their latest expansion. According to Woodley, Frontiers is their most popular expansion to date. The game is currently sitting on its highest player count today, with its subreddit sitting at 600,000 users.
If you have been thinking about trying No Man’s Sky but have yet to take the plunge now might be the perfect time to do so. It has never been easier to play with your friends, discover and name both planets and aliens, and build the space settlement of your dreams.
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