Massive No Man's Sky update adds new solar systems, revamped tech, deeper sea exploration, and gas giants "ten times bigger than our biggest planet"

A player character looks out at a sci-fi landscape in No Man's Sky's Worlds Part II update. — (Image credit: Hello Games)

Almost a decade after its controversial launch nearly killed any prospects at long-term success, No Man's Sky is gearing up to release another absolutely massive update to expand its already-limitless universe further.

Developer Hello Games announced today the space exploration game's Worlds Part II update, following last year's aptly named Worlds Part I. This time around, there are new solar systems to find in the deep void, more variety on planets, fresh terrain types, updated tech, more quests, better deep sea exploration, and new Gas Giants that are "ten times bigger" than the game's biggest planets.

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Studio founder Sean Murray dived deep into all the newness in a video embedded below, showing off all the gorgeous changes to lighting, reflections, and water physics that make an already handsome game even more awesome. It's rare to have a game as big as No Man's Sky, but the wizards at Hello Games take things one step further by making each of its procgen planets a true spectacle, too.

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"Across the universe we're adding billions of new solar systems and trillions of new planets, and introducing new biomes and terrains without changing what people already love about the game," Murray explains, but it's not just quantity over quality. Those massive Gas Giants are "truly end-game stuff to explore them with huge storms that rage across the surface," meanwhile, "there's this huge quest that ties together some strands that we've been building for years."

Continued development on No Man's Sky doesn't take away from the team's efforts on Light No Fire either, another open-world sim that instead is trying to emulate the vastness and breadth of a single world. "The team is extremely busy on Light No Fire," Murray said. "Each time we push our engine to new places, though, we have this urge to share it with the community, with No Man’s Sky."

You can read the full patch notes for No Man's Sky's Worlds Part II update here for all the nitty gritty details. Spoilers: you can find adorable seahorses hiding in some oceans now.

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