No Man’s Sky, a game with one of the greatest redemption arcs in video game history, will be available on the Microsoft Game Pass from June 11th. As an addition, the game will also be going cross-platform, to promote cross-play between PS4, XB1 and PC.
To coincide with the release of the game on Game Pass, which is bound to bring in 100,000s of new players, there is also an updated Windows 10 version of the game now available for PC. This makes the transition to cross-platform easier.
This huge update to No Man’s Sky also improves a lot of the frontend and backend stuff that makes up the multiplayer part of the game. It was the main aim of the cross-platform update to make it easier for players to interact, even across different platforms.
There’s been an overhaul to the lobby and party options in the game, which means it’s now easier to add friends, talk with them, and get into the same lobby.
A simple in-game interaction has been introduced wherein you stand in front of another player and press a button. This will add them to your party (if they accept) and you will be placed into a lobby.
This also means that you can be theoretically matched up with players from any of the three major platforms. In what the devs describe as “ambient multiplayer” the universe of No Man’s Sky will likely feel busier than ever.
To coincide with the huge changes to the multiplayer experience, voice chat has also been refined. It has been re-enabled on PS4, and there are better provisions put in place for voice-to-chat to work across different platforms.
The cross-play update also adds a few quality of life changes, such as improving the animation when you feed large creatures and sped up some of the low load times. You can read more about the specific changes on the No Man’s Sky official blog.
You can download No Man’s Sky via the Game Pass from June 11th.
