No Man’s Sky released today on PS4, and one of the biggest questions still unanswered is how the mysterious multiplayer functionality will work. Two players have already managed to dispel a little of that mystery, though, as they found the same planet and attempted to meet up.
As reported by Kotaku, though, the meeting was not to be: The players, who go by TheSadCactus and Psytokat, could not see each other even though they coordinated to make sure they were in the same place.
This all began when TheSadCactus stumbled across a world already discovered by Psytokat. TheSadCactus then messaged the planet’s discoverer, attempting to coordinate so that they could test out No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer. They made it to the same place–standing outside the same settlement–and while the world appeared identical, they never caught sight of each other.
However, the discovery mechanics do work: one player found a plant, and his name appeared on the other player’s screen as the discoverer when the plant was inspected.
They’re still experimenting on Twitch, which you can watch here. Only one of the players originally had PlayStation Plus–and although developer Hello Games has said that you don’t need PS Plus for No Man’s Sky, they decided to see if both players having PS Plus made any difference. That’s what they’re doing at the time of this writing.
This seems to reiterate what developer Hello Games has stated over the past few days. Sean Murray tweeted recently that No Man’s Sky is definitely not a multiplayer game, and he’s said before that it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll ever see someone else. In addition, the fact that you can pause the game suggests that players are on their own instances in No Man’s Sky’s servers.
However, Sean Murray has been hinting today on Twitter that the game’s servers are under strain, so it’s still unclear whether or not it’ll eventually be possible to see someone.
If you’ve just started playing No Man’s Sky, then check out our feature, No Man’s Sky: Everything You Need to Know.