Despite some major technical difficulties, No Man’s Sky has quickly become the most popular title on Steam this year. At peak the highly anticipated indie space game boasts over 200,000 concurrent players on Steam. That’s well over any other games on Steam other than years old multiplayer veterans Dota 2 and Counter-strike. The last game to achieve those crazy numbers at launch was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
For instance over night we hit 10 million species discovered in NMS… that’s more than has been discovered on earth.
WHAT IS GOING ON!!!— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 10, 2016
No Man’s Sky has been one of the most highly anticipated games of all time, having first debuted with an impressive trailer at the VGX awards in 2013. Details about the game trickled in slowly, leading to a frenzy of excitement and possibilities.
Some of those possibilities needed to be tempered, including lots of confusion and lack of explanation regarding the game’s multiplayer capabilities. For example, the game’s description on its Steam store page was quietly changed from “Massively Multiplayer” to “Single Player” just days before launch. Steam user reviews are currently “Mixed,” with 58% positive. Critics have similarly been divided, praising the wide exploration while bemoaning its tedious crafting and monotony.
The PC launch has sadly been marred by numerous technical difficulties. It appears to be a port of the PlayStation 4 version. Many users have had framerate issues, crashing, and graphical errors. The game also does not play nice with AMD Phenom CPUs. I haven’t been able to get the game to launch at all without using a workaround emulator. I can’t remember the last time I had that much of an issue with a PC game. An incoming patch will hopefully solve these problems.
No Man’s Sky is a massive game developed by a relatively tiny studio. It’s creating both adoration and hatred from all corners of the gaming sphere. Whether you love it or hate it (or just don’t care) its incredible popularity is undeniable.
