No Man's Sky Will Hit Version 3.0 With Universe-Expanding Origins Update

No Man's Sky has launched its next update, Origins, and it's an update so seismic that the game's version number has been pushed forward to 3.0. No Man's Sky Origins doubles the variety of the game's planets, essentially recreating the universe with many, many new elements.

As players have spent so much time with No Man's Sky (the average play time is 45 hours), developer Hello Games is moving to make the experience more varied going forward. There are new environmental hazards that will be introduced throughout the universe in this update, including lava and lightning, for players to watch out for.

You can watch the trailer for No Man's Sky Origins below.

"When we launched No Man’s Sky in 2016, we created a universe which was our best guess for what people wanted to discover and explore," Hello Games' Tim Woodley told GameSpot.

"For all the additions and improvements which have gone into the game since launch, fundamentally we have still been living in that same universe as we were when those first intrepid travelers stepped foot on their first planet four years ago," he continues. "Completely overhauling the universe is a tricky and technical challenge at the best of times, more so when that universe is already semi-populated and colonized. Major changes to topography or other additions run the risk of nerfing people’s finely honed bases and creations."

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Origins, which greatly expands the universe and the types of planets players can encounter, is what Hello Games arrived at. "We wanted to re-capture that feeling of those early travellers who never really knew what was over the next hill, on the next planet, in the next star system," Woodley says.

"By our calculations, we have doubled the variety in the game and that is why we feel it is deserving of its 3.0 moniker."

The full patch notes detail all the changes coming to No Man's Sky with Origins, which has been in the works since Beyond was finished last year.

Hello Games has also previously confirmed that it is working on something new, a "huge, ambitious game."