For all its infinite expanse and abundance of colonised planets, there's still some uncharted frontiers that No Man's Sky has yet to explore, but that changes this year, as Hello Games has now announced that the game will be making one giant leap to the Xbox One.
That's right, the impossible has been made possible, and what was originally a PlayStation 4 exclusive is now launching on the Xbox One in the near future, published by 505 Games with a physical retail edition and bespoke visuals enhancements for the Xbox One X.
The game will also come with all of No Man's Sky's previous updates, including Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises, and the game's newly announced patch - No Man's Sky NEXT - which itself will be rolling out in the summer.
Coming in Summer 2018 is No Man's Sky NEXT, a free update for PS4, PC, Xbox and WeGame. It's our largest update so far, and we're working our socks off pic.twitter.com/wZhjaLMbsTMarch 29, 2018
In an email, Hello Games' director Sean Murray calls No Man's Sky NEXT the "biggest update so far" for the game, which is saying something when you consider how many game-changing features the Atlas Rises update brought to the experience.
The new screenshots for NEXT suggests there'll be a huge expansion to the game's trading mechanics, with capital freighters and space-set trading posts that present the kind of scope players were originally expecting from the game when it first released.
"We called this update NEXT, because it's an important next step on a longer journey for us and the community." explained Murray. "We’ve been working our socks off on this and it’s by far our biggest update so far. It will be free to existing players, and we'll continue to support No Man's Sky in this way for the foreseeable future."
From the sounds of it, NEXT is merely the next (ha!) step for Hello Games in making No Man's Sky the kind of game that players have always wanted, despite the backlash the studio received following a rocky launch period in 2016.
Oh, and for those who remember the cryptic ARG which revealed the Atlas Rises update last year, Sean Murray also pointed to the existence of a mysterious site called Ware Tech, which could hold the key to more information about No Man's Sky's exciting future.
No release dates have yet been given for either the NEXT update or the Xbox One release of No Man's Sky, but we know the former is coming in the summer and that it'll be live by the time the game launches on Xbox One, so neither can be too far off from now.
Are you excited to jump back into No Man's Sky? Or has its launch day troubles put you off for good? Let us know in the comments below, and tell us about any cool discoveries you've made in the game so far.
