The third major update for No Man's Sky is due out later this week. Dubbed Atlas Rises, it delivers a pair of oft-requested features at no cost to players.
Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray in announcing the update said it will focus on improving the game's central story and add the ability to quick travel between locations via portals. The first two major updates added base-building and land vehicles, respectively.
Murray promised that patch notes will be made available shortly before the update goes live later this week.
No Man's Sky launched exactly one year ago to the day as one of the most anticipated games in recent memory. Unfortunately, it fell way short of expectations which resulted in a passion-fueled outcry on a level that's rarely seen.
Hello Games, with just 16 employees, has been working to rectify the shortcomings ever since.
Whether or not it makes financial sense to continue to support a game that doesn't have a huge following at this point is questionable. If nothing else, however, you've got to applaud Hello Games for its continued commitment to improving No Man's Sky. It would have been easy for the tiny developer to take the money it made from the game and run or shift all of its resources to a new project but that hasn't been the case.