Creating a game means more than just the development side of things. People need to be aware of the product that's about to drop. Whether it's a weird video game commercial, an online tease campaign, or an industry "leak," the marketing tactics employed by studios can often be elaborate and even expensive. Not when it comes to No Man's Sky, however. Whenever Hello Games needs to get word out that some new content is possibly on the way, the simplest tactic is often the best, and the developer has been at it again.In the wake of a recent tweet by the studio's founder Sean Murray, fans have been speculating about some new No Man's Sky DLC that could be coming soon. The post in question does not feature any elaborate text or cryptic message or even a link to some teaser footage. Instead, it is a simple emoticon of the Jolly Roger flag. This has led people to think that some pirate-themed content may be coming to the space exploration title, but Murray does not appear to be saying anything else.It's a pretty genius piece of marketing. It costs nothing to do, and with an already established fan base that plays the game, it's the community at large and the surrounding media, that's left to fill in the gaps. Of course, it's worth saying at this stage that there's been official confirmation of any pirate-based DLC at the time of writing. However, this isn't the first time Murray has used Twitter to hint at a significant update. For the No Man's Sky Frontiers patch back in August 2021, a similar emoticon based tweet was used to titillate people in the comments and get them guessing.
For now, all fans can really do is wait until some further developments on the matter or for the rumored update itself to just drop, whenever that could be. Alongside this possible new content, No Man's Sky recently won the 'Evolving Game' award at this year's BAFTA, with Murray again taking to Twitter to announce his delight.
Initially released to controversy back in 2016, No Man's Sky was largely considered a video game that was way too ambitious, with many players angry at the fact that the galaxy-sized sci-fi title did not contain nearly as much content as was promised by the team, especially Murray. However, since then, Hello Games has continued to work diligently on adding as many free expansions as possible, not only undoing the damage that was done several years ago, but actually making No Man's Sky one of the most in-depth space exploration games currently on the scene.
No Man's Sky is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and is in development for the Nintendo Switch.