No Man’s Sky Foundation Update Arrives For PC And PS4 To Begin Silencing Game’s Many Critics

As recently promised, Hello Games has delivered a much needed patch for No Man's Sky, the beleaguered title that has somehow survived a storm of criticism along with accusations that its developers outright misled gamers. Called the Foundation Update, the versions 1.1 patch instead intended to fix all that is wrong with No Man's Sky, but as its name implies it will serve as a "foundation for things to come."

Hello Games broke months of silence last week when it announced that the Foundation Update was coming. The developer acknowledged that it has been quiet while "intense and dramatic" discussion about the game has been taking place, but said that it has been "listening and focusing on improving" No Man's Land. This latest patch is the result of that.

No Man's Sky Foundation Update

"Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone. This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us," Hello Games said.

Even though the Foundation Update won't be the biggest one to arrive for No Man's Land, it's still rather large in terms of what it adds and fixes. Chief among them are two new game modes, Creative and Survival. The former allows players to explore the universe without limits and to build a big base, while the latter significantly raises the game's difficulty.


On top of adding and tweaking several features, Hello Games spent some time dressing the game up with visual upgrades. There is a new motion blur option that is intended to accentuate the feeling of speed, particularly when in flight. There's also a new Temporal Anti Aliasing (TAA) option to remove jagged edges, texture streaming to allow minimum spec PCs to run the game more smoothly, and new algorithms for terrain generation and colorization to make planets look more interesting.

Early impressions have been positive, which suggests that Hello Games is on the right track here. The positive response also leads to hope that No Man's Sky is not only a game worth saving, but one that is capable of saving at this point.

The patch is available now for PC and PlayStation 4.