No Man's Sky Alternate-Reality Game Teases Big New Update Coming Next Month

It's been almost a year since the procedurally generated space-exploration game No Man's Sky was released on PS4 and PC. Developer Hello Games has been radio silent since it released the game's most recent content update back in March. Now, we know at least one thing that the studio has been working on: a crazy, mysterious alternate-reality game which points toward a big update coming in August.

The ARG started at the beginning of June, when moderators of No Man's Sky subreddits got packages in the mail that contained a poster and a cassette. According to r/NoMansSkyTheGame moderator UnimatrixZeroOne, decoding the clues hidden in the cassette recordings led to a string, which itself was translated to "portal." This allowed fans to solve the next clue in the Waking Titan ARG.

Progressing through Waking Titan uncovered several documents that teased developments within the No Man's Sky universe. This culminated in the most recent file which reveals that a new update is coming in August. The document, presented in a memo format, is signed "S.M.," which is almost certainly a reference to Hello Games founder Sean Murray.

Alongside this tease, a website went live for the in-game organization called The Atlas Foundation. The website asks for fans--which it refers to as "Citizen Scientists"--to enter their email addresses to "help understand the nature of reality itself." Submitting your address will subscribe you to an email list and give you access to a survey with questions like, "What does it mean for a dream to be realistic?" You can also sign up through the survey for a chance to win a physical Level 4 Atlas Pass.

Assuming that the teased update is a major content patch, it'll be the third such update since No Man's Sky's release last year. The first, called the Foundation Update, added base-building and frigates, while the second added land vehicles.