No Man's Sky: Multiplayer or Singleplayer - How is this "MMO" classified?

Is the upcoming space simulation No Man’s Sky more multiplayer or singleplayer? Is Coop possible?

Many fans have been scratching their heads since the announcement of No Man’s Sky and are asking: “What exactly is No Man’s Sky?” To shed light on the matter, the developers at Hello Games are currently releasing short trailers about the four key “pillars” of the game: Exploration, Combat, Trading, and Survival.

One question still lingers in the dark uncertainty: Is No Man’s Sky a multiplayer game or more of a singleplayer game?

No Man’s Sky has a bit of both

This question is not easy to answer, as even the founder of Hello Games, Sean Murray, has been evasive with a concrete answer. However, in an interview with Gameinformer conducted back in late 2014, he made a concrete statement:

We are not trying to make an MMO where you can literally play with 60,000 players on the screen.

Therefore, we can abandon the notion that thousands of players will be together in No Man’s Sky. The developers did not set out to create an MMO.

Nevertheless, No Man’s Sky is a “multiplayer” game that requires an internet connection. You can encounter other players. However, the chances of coming across human characters are so low that the term “multiplayer” is already somewhat misleading. Even if 100 players land on the same planet at the same time, the chance of them meeting is low. The planets are gigantic as well. And consider: There are supposed to be 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 procedurally generated planets in total.

The idea of spontaneously setting up a Coop session in No Man’s Sky can be discarded. The seemingly endless dimensions of the space simulation are simply not designed for multiplayer action and Coop fun.

A singleplayer game that you can encounter other players in

Consequently, No Man’s Sky should unfortunately be classified as a singleplayer game. At least that’s how the PlayStation Store and Steam categorize it. Thus, a paid “PS Plus” membership is also not required, which is needed for online play on the PS4.

Even if you never encounter another player – which is quite possible – there is still a way to “interact” with them: All your explorations and actions in the galaxy are registered in a “Universal Atlas”. Every trace you leave behind is noted “indelibly” in it. And the likelihood of discovering traces of others is significantly higher than meeting them in person.

By the way: According to Murray, friends are displayed on the “Map”. In theory, it is therefore possible to fly to them. However, they will be so far away that the trip will hardly be worthwhile. As Murray says, one can only grasp these dimensions when one is in the game. And even if two friends were to meet on a planet, they would first have to find each other on the immensely large planet. This can, for example, have the dimensions of Earth.

And here one must ask: If only two people were on Earth – how likely would it be that they would run into each other? No Man’s Sky cannot provide Coop fun.

Note: If you do happen to encounter a player, the user name will not be displayed.

What do you think about it?