1y ago

Starfield hasn’t hurt No Man’s Sky’s popularity – it may have even helped it

www.vg247.com Starfield hasn’t hurt No Man’s Sky’s popularity – it may have even helped it

No Man's Sky has had a great month, coincidentally around the launch of the other big space adventure of the day.

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No Man's Sky has been one of the best examples of a video redemption story, and developer Hello Games never stopped expanding the game with new content, and more features. Just recently, the procedural space adventure celebrated its seventh anniversary with the Echoes update, and it doesn't look like there's an end in sight to this support.

But do these updates bring back players? The answer is an emphatic yes! Hello Games founder, Sean Murray, recently revealed that No Man's Sky is having "its biggest month in the last few years." Interestingly, this is happening across all platforms where No Man's Sky is available - so PC, consoles, Mac, and even VR.

PC Gaming @kbin.social

Starfield hasn’t hurt No Man’s Sky’s popularity – it may have even helped it

www.vg247.com /no-mans-sky-biggest-month-in-years-starfield-launch

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45 comments

Having played a lot of NMS and now sinking time into Starfield, these comparisons need to stop. NMS and Starfield are wildly different games.
It's just like when people compare Terraria and Minecraft, or Overwatch and TF2. It's a poor comparison beyond the vague theme of each game.
NMS and Starfield are both set in space, give the player a spaceship, and let the player land on planets. That's where the similarities end.
- It's strange, people can't seem to help themselves.
  Even the Star Citizen community was full of people talking about how Starfield was finally going to deliver as the superior sandbox space sim.
  Space Game is not a genre, it's a setting. Bethesda RPGs are gonna Bethesda RPG, no matter how you flavor it.
  
  It's like Cyberpunk again, people gave themselves grand ideas about what a game would be regardless of what the Devs were saying, then got upset it isn't the game they imagined but the one they were told they were getting.
- I don't think it's unfair to point out that many of the people who were interested in Starfield leading up to launch thought they were getting more of a space sim than they did, proceeded to look for alternatives, and NMS was there being pretty good at what it does now. The OP article demonstrates this and is not a comparison between the games. In my case, Starfield just reminded me that NMS exists and I decided I'd rather be playing it. Fundamentally comparing the games is ridiculous, but it's no surprise that NMS ended up in the conversation.
  
  Maybe they should have paid attention to what was actually being said by the Devs then. They clarified that it wasn't going to be like NMS/Elite/etc at least a year out from release.
  
  I recently started playing NMS again right before Echoes, although I didn’t know Echoes was coming up. While I never made a conscious link between seeing all of the news about Starfield and me choosing that game when I was last looking through the plethora for something to inspire me, I think it may have had a subconscious effect on my choice.
- Both also have base building mechanics, survey objectives, jet packs, mining lasers, but that’s really where the similarities end.
- They would be very similar. if Bethesda was competent both games have lots of similar elements from, yes having ships to scanning resources on a planet to having a jetpack. So it is fair and understandtable to compare these games pretty much the biggest difference is that Bethesda not having seamless apace travel and I ain't letting them off the hook for "well they are just different games 🤓" bullshit.
  
  I'm actually kinda glad it didn't have seamless space travel. I don't think it's entirely necessary. Colour me the 1%

I have played both. I prefer No Mans Sky. It’s just a better game by far.
- I honestly cannot fathom how would you could possibly think that no man's sky is a better game by far.
  No Man Sky's is a good engine / tech demo to build a game on, but it's barely a game.
  Ground combat suck, space combat sucks, the story is just random notes tucked away with zero interesting characters or character development.
  It's basically just grinding it out to fly around and scan a bunch of plants that look identical but have a slightly different name.
  
  Really? You can't fathom how someone would consider NMS a better game? Both games are barely comparable other than using space as a backdrop. Judging by the reaction online, it seems like many people were lead to believe that Starfield would be a space sim and came up wanting when it was more of a sci-fi Fallout, with mostly optional engagement with the space elements. For those people, I can see merit in recommending they check out No Man's Sky, which has a shallow, bit widely-spread space simulation to engage with.
  I don't think it's useful to try and argue which game is better, but I would much rather play No Man's Sky any day of the week. Bethesda RPGs have long lost their luster for me since the Oblivion days, and now just stand as a testament of disappointing writing, stagnant technology and under-baked systems. Starfield does not show any meaningful signs of breaking the norm.
  
  I thought this way back when i first played it. But I've been spending the lasts days playing and it got so much better.
  The environments are no longer the same everywhere, sure you will find matching planets but they don't all look like asteroids with hair anymore. Minerals dont stick out of the ground anymore. And underground caves exists.
  The multiplayer aspect got better too (or so i hear, didn't get to try it yet).
  The stories are more engaging with specific npc's interacting with you.
  Never thought space combat sucked? It's not to the level of Elite Dangerous, but it's somewhat entertaining, and accomplishes what need to be done imo.
  It's an MMORPG so of course you have grinding, and for my current playthrough it isn't boring yet. I've got a minecraft vibe, where you upgrade gear and ammass items for future uses.
  love that you can get pets now and use them for more than simply have around, I got some kind of panther yesterday, was able to mount some guns to it and now it helps me in combat (kinda tedious to use idk if i fully figured it out yet, but sometimes the companion won't attack).
  All that and i only started playing, there's the whole frigate thing, and also settlements to protect. I'm told you can have some kind of fleet to send on missions, and i'm certain there's other huge content i'm missing that i dont know of yet.
  
  Yeah, I think you are describing the game at release years ago. It has grown so much since then.
- The space exploration seems leagues better in No Man's Sky than Starfield.
  
  I would certainly hope so as that is No Man’s Sky entire gameplay loop

Title is a bit click-baity, but the core message is the game has seen a boost in users since it's recent update that was just before the starfield launch.
- A rising tide lifts all boats.
  I don't think it's surprising that a sci fi game with exploration elements from a major AAA studio renewed interest in a sci fi survival/exploration game from a smaller studio. If you want more of the exploration part of Starfield, No Man's Sky is the natural option.

Why do we need to keep pitting these games against each other, aside from being set in space they're not even remotely similar gameplay wise. One is a survival game framework, the other is a RPG/Lifesim. There's plenty of room for both in the market.

They're defintely way different games. NMS is more sandbox and procedural focused, whereas Starfield is a story focused game. Both are buggy space games lol.
- Thank you for saying it. I’m getting tired of all of these “Starfield is NMS but worse” takes form people that have obviously played neither.
- NMS is a space exploration game.
  Starfield is a lite-RPG with a space theme.

Starfield held my interest for a week. It's okay, but it's my least favorite polygon-based Bethesda game besides F76. The aging engine just wasn't made for a game of this scope. I tried No Man's Sky and didn't like it, just not my thing.
- I've played to 150 on fo76, the funniest thing to me is that npcs were an after thought for 76 and still feel more real than starfields citizens... So odd

I played Starfield on the Game Pass and was bored to tears after four hours. It made me want to explore space, but everything is so half-baked in Starfield that it drove me to reinstall and start playing more No Man’s Sky.

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