News is coming out of Game Informer Australia,

You can play the whole game offline if you want, but your discoveries won't be synced with other players (obviously). And while most (all?) non-free to play games on the PS4 require you to have an active PS+ membership to play online, this game wont.

This seems like a smart move on either Hello Games and/or Sonys part. Its one less thing for people to worry about if they've been considering a PS4 for this title and this title alone.

Should probably be noted that you don't really play online either, it's just syncing data with other players. I don't own a PS4, but did Little Big Planet 3 require PS+ to download other user's levels?

The GOG and Steam versions are tagged as single player only games, and the last time they even hinted at you actually being able to see other players in the game, rather than seeing the impact of other players was over two years ago.

I would've thought it would be pretty weird for them to require PS+ for the kind of online features this game has.

I wonder how many people are going to be disappointed on Day 1 when they try to meet up with a friend and realize the multiplayer is asynchronous.

It's basically leaderboards, but represented differently.

27.31%

Didn't they say there might be some sort of Journey-esque multiplayer component though? That it'd be super rare to come across another player, but would technically be possible?

@theht: That was something they hinted at about two years ago, they haven't mentioned it since though, and the current descriptions of the game on store pages and their official site make no mention of anything but seeing the impact of other players, which probably boils down to names and resource scarcity (if that). Wouldn't get my hopes up about anything beyond that.

@fisk0: You're probably right. Maybe they're gonna try and ramp up to something like that, what with their whole "most players will probably try and reach the center of the galaxy."

They did but I found the way they described it to be extremely dubious.

Anyone know if the PC universe data and the PS4 universe data are shared?

I think sometimes PS+ is only required for synchronous multiplayer.

MGSV would let you do some of the motherbase stuff even without PS+.

Then again, the Dark Souls 3 messages and bloodstains did need it.

This thread title is a bit misleading because you're not really 'playing' online, just pulling information from it.

To expand on this, in Destiny, even without PS+ you will still run into random players in the public patrol areas and social spaces. You can't do any strictly co-op activities and you can't squad up with people, but there is still interaction with other players that is possible without PS+.

That alone constitutes far more multiplayer interaction than what they've said about the online components of No Man's Sky. It would be insane if you needed PS+ to send and receive galaxy data.

probably because it's not really multiplayer as you won't ever meet anyone in such a huge galaxy harumph harumph harumph

500 quantilion brad-bux-zillion planets from what I hear! Some have pink elephants on them, some blue, it's a huge galaxy out there.

I don't remember the last time a (probably) decent game got hurt this bad from pre-release hype.

it's a much more and some would say unfairly discerning internet crowd out there. one or two bigger names express their cynical misgivings and it's everyone aboard the gravy train. while steam forums massacre and feed on what's left. the only thing immune this days seems to be retro (but not TOO retro) open ended sim games with obnoxiously crazy complexity that their fans somehow find 100s of hours to devote to.

(i'm slightly bitter mysefl :) )

@xeiphyer: I think a lot of people have expectations of this game that are not going to be met and are going to be disappointed as a result. Like many others, I was extremely excited when I saw that initial E3 trailer. Pretty much everything I have seen or heard since has made me less and less interested in the game. It has gotten to the point where I have very little interest in the game at all and expect it get mediocre reviews. My expectations have tapered, many others have not. I think there will be a lot of disappointed gamers when they finally get their hands on this thing.

So has Sean Murray or any Hello Games rep come out and said that the mechanic of each player having an instanced lobby "bubble" around them that other players automatically join when near each other that they've talked about before has been scrapped? I remember him saying you can pass by and see other players but there won't be any icons signifying that they're live players, which means you'd just have to recognize that they're a unique model or ship and pay attention.

Interview linked below is only 14 days old where Murray has said players will join each others' open lobby's in the way described above, when near each other (however unlikely).

http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-10-burning-questions-answered/

The interview is from 2014, that article is just recycling old information.

They've been so cagey about whether or not you can actually meet other players in game that I still don't know if you can or not. And, if the likelihood of meeting up is as small as they claim it is, I wonder why they'd even bother putting that feature in the game in the first place.

@mooseymcman: Iv been assuming since they haven't been giving a straight yes or no answer when asked with a straight forward "can you play with another player" question, just dancing around it, that its a no. Why else would they be keeping information about a major feature back unless its basically a no?

Will it require super formula? :p

@lego_my_eggo: maybe they want something to be a surprise? Like galakz and the mecha mode.