No Man's Sky Dev Responds to Controversy, Announces New Update

The future of No Man's Sky is coming into focus. Developer Hello Games today announced the game's "Foundation" update, which adds the previously discussed base-building feature, while it also discussed the controversy surrounding the ambitious space game.

The update is slated to come out this week. It's called "The Foundation Update" because it adds the first parts of No Man's Sky's base-building and also puts in place "a foundation for things to come."

Full patch notes for the update will be announced soon, Hello Games said.

The developer added that it's been "hard at work" on the Foundation update for more than nine weeks. It cautioned that the update won't be the biggest ever for No Man's Sky, "but it is the start of something."

Hello Games also acknowledged the controversy surrounding No Man's Sky.

"The discussion around No Man's Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about," it said. "Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone."

The Foundation update will be the "first small step in a longer journey," Hello Games said.

"We hope you can join us."

In September, The UK's Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation into No Man's Sky after it received "several complaints" about the game's potentially misleading advertising. After that, the No Man's Sky subreddit was temporarily closed, after being described by its moderator as a "hate-filled wastehole."

More recently, the Hello Games Twitter account tweeted about No Man's Sky being "a mistake," but it turned out that this tweet was the result of a hack.

Earlier this month, PlayStation executive Shawn Layden said he thinks No Man's Sky will eventually become the game Hello Games envisioned.

"They're still updating it. They're trying to get it closer enough or closer to what their vision was," he said. "I think what we learned from that is that we don't want to stifle ambition. We don't want to stifle creativity," he added. "We don't want to put people into slots where they must execute against an action adventure path or a fighting path or a shooting path. Perhaps over time [No Man's Sky] will reveal itself to be all it can be."