Arguably gaming's biggest controversy in the last few years was No Man's Sky, Hello Games' space exploration title, complete with spaceships and a procedurally-generated universe. Despite promises of heaps of content, No Man's Sky ultimately ended up releasing with very little. This led to a major negative reception across the gaming community.
Instead of cutting its losses, Hello Games instead committed to the game and stuck with it, adding new content and fixing bugs. Recently, the company announced the NEXT update which, among other things, should bring the title to the Xbox One this summer. Here's how bringing the game to a new platform will give No Man's Sky a second chance at a successful launch.
A fresh crowd
The biggest reason No Man's Sky may very do well on the Xbox One is because its player base did not experience the catastrophic failures of the game's original launch. The title only came out for the PC and PlayStation 4 in 2016, and Hello Games has had a tough time trying to keep people on board with the game as it rolled out patches.
Since the Xbox community was not affected, they're going to be a blank slate for No Man's Sky. The developer won't have to try and keep people playing while things are added, because the game at the Xbox launch will be the modern version that is rich in content. The Xbox fanbase will never deal with the glaringly flawed vanilla version.
A unique product
Another big advantage that No Man's Sky has with the Xbox console is that there are very few things on the console currently that offer a similar experience. Aside from Astroneer (which is still in Early Access) and Elite: Dangerous (which has mixed reception overall), the type of gameplay No Man's Sky has is absent. This means that Hello Games will essentially have a rival-free market when the game releases this summer.
Competition will likely arise eventually, but No Man's Sky can play the "early bird" and establish itself as the definitive space exploration game for Xbox One. This means that it will be, for the first time, the game on top of the hill instead of the one trying to claw its way up from the bottom.
What would help the game succeed?
Though the game's chances for success on Xbox One look good as of now, there are some things that may bolster the odds in its favor. Some form of Xbox exclusive content, whether it be outfits, weapons, or a ship, would give Xbox owners even more reason to buy the game. Another potential route Hello Games could go down is to make No Man's Sky available as part of the Xbox Game Pass program.
Read: Everything you need to know about Xbox Game Pass
Making it available via Game Pass would let skeptical players who are worried it will be like the original launch version try the game out at a low price of $10 (or even for free if people use Game Pass's 14-day free trial). Creating some form of free demo for the game would be a wise decision, as well.
Your thoughts
What do you think of No Man's Sky? Will you buy it when it comes out this summer? Let me know in the comments.
No Man's Sky is available right now on Steam for $59.99, and is currently available for Xbox preorder on Amazon for $10 cheaper. Judging by the listing on Amazon, it could be available on July 31, 2018, though that may just be a placeholder.
