‘No Man’s Sky’ ‘Day Zero’ Update Detailed, Devs Recommend Early Players Delete Saved Files

The first major update for Hello Games' action adventure survival video game "No Man's Sky" has been detailed, with the developers recommending that those who played or are playing the game before the update arrives to deleted their saved files.

Sean Murray, one of the founders of Hello Games and co-director of "No Man's Sky," shared the update's details in a blog post on the game's official website. Dubbed Update 1.03, the patch is set to bring some massive overhauls to the game and will essentially act as the day one patch for "No Man's Sky" when it releases Tuesday, August 9.

Despite seeming like just another in the continuing trend of day one patches in the industry, Murray stated that the Update 1.03 will actually be more of a "day zero" update to the game as it will do more than institute some fixes or off-disk polishing.

According to Murray, "No Man's Sky" Update 1.03 will actually bring a sweeping change to everything about the game. An example of the big changes that 1.03 will bring is the addition to the new "paths" system in the game, with the update bringing in new paths for players to follow as they play the game.

Essentially, "The Three Paths" will function as the choice and consequence system of "No Man's Sky," meaning that choices made by the players in the early parts of the game will have significant impact later on as they continue playing.

As "The Three paths" does not yet exist in the pre-screen/pre-launch version of the game and requires a new save, those who might wish to continue playing "No Man's Sky" past the update will miss out on the content. As such, Murray recommends that those who are playing the game before it's official launch, either as a review copy or by getting it from retailers who broke the game's release date, will need to delete their saves and start fresh to access the content coming with Update 1.03.

"If you had an early copy somehow, your save game will technically work post update, but you will miss out on new content and experiences if you don't delete your save before updating," said Murray. To quell the worries of those who might be lead to think that Hello Games will keep requiring players to delete their saves, Murray assured that it is only because Update 1.03 is a "day zero update" and is only for this instance of the game and will not be repeated in the future.