All leaks, spoilers, and gameplay footage have been archived in this thread (spoiler warning!) on the No Man’s Sky subreddit, spearheaded by user Daymeeuhn, proud owner of a PS4 disc purchased on eBay for $1300. Daymeeuhn posted an unboxing video last Friday (the 29th), and has continued to regularly upload footage and screenshots.
Unrealistic expectations have led to some panicky negative reactions, but overall it appears to be the 3D-Starbound-ish game that was advertised—at the very least, the owners of the leaked copies are enjoying themselves. Perhaps the most interesting result of the leak is that Daymeeuhn has already reached the mysterious center of the galaxy (theoretically the endgame of No Man’s Sky) in only 30 hours, well below the suggested timeframe, by using gameplay exploits. He and other “early adopters” have also recorded quite a few bugs, but there’s no reason to think that some of these won’t be ironed out with a day-one patch.
Obviously, the game’s developers aren’t happy with the leaks—Hello Games founder Sean Murray tweeted, “we’ve spent years filling No Man’s Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself :(.“ This is advice worth taking, especially with a potential patch changing the game from the state it’s in now—it’s really not fair to evaluate a game before it’s released, especially one so large in scope. We're hoping to publish No Man's Sky benchmarks minimally, and may also talk about gameplay at launch. Stay tuned for that.
- Patrick "Germ King" Lathan.
