Does No Man‘s Sky Have Crossplay in 2024?

In an August 2021 blog post, Hello Games founder Sean Murray confirmed unambiguously that yes, full crossplay is now supported:

"You‘ll be able to group up with your friends regardless of what platform they‘re playing on."

So whether you game on Playstation, Xbox or PC, you can explore the universe together! This definitive guide will teach you everything about No Man‘s Sky multiplayer.

A Brief History of NMS Multiplayer and Crossplay

While No Man‘s Sky launched in 2016 with basic multiplayer functions, the implementations were limited and many critics panned the lack of promised connected gameplay.

However, Hello Games kept delivering huge content updates, slowly transforming what was once a single-player survival game into a hugely ambitious shared-world experience crossing platforms.

Here‘s a quick history of how NMS multiplayer evolved over the years:

• 2016 Launch – You could see other players as floating orbs but not directly interact or communicate. This was due to limitations in the networking model which prioritized scale over synchronous co-op.
• Atlas Rises (2017) – Brought 32 player lobbies at portal locations, allowing you to see nearby players and voxel interactions.
• Next (2018) – Added basic 4 player co-op, introduction of Nexus multiplayer hub and squad system for groups.
• Beyond (2019) – Significantly expanded Nexus to 16 player capacity. Added group missions and full VR crossplay support.
• Origin (2020) – Base building limits raised for bigger community projects, also rideable creatures
• Prisms (2021) – New seasonal content model begins, brings weekly missions encouraging multiplayer engagement.
• Sentinel (Feb 2022) – Full crossplay finally realized between PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles. The ultimate connection!

As you can see, with 5 major updates spanning half a decade, Hello Games systematically tore down the barriers standing in the way of their original vision for togetherness between explorers.

Today, anyone across computers and consoles can join up to cooperate or compete. So what are you waiting for?

Playing Crossplay in No Man‘s Sky – The Practical Lowdown

Enough history – you want to play with friends now! Well setting up crossplay is simple. Follow these steps:

1. Make sure crossplay is enabled in your platform‘s settings (enabled by default).

2. Launch No Man‘s Sky and access your friend list.

3. Your friend list should automatically populate from your linked platform accounts and beyond. You‘ll see friends from Playstation, Xbox Live, Steam etc:

4. Join someone‘s game or invite to bring them into yours! Now you‘ll appear as proper avatars to each other and can explore that luscious alien landscape side by side.

Some tips for playing:

• Base complexity limits are per player in a session not shared. So build to your heart‘s content!
• Having one player with good PC performance minimize stutters for the group
• For big community events, meet up at the Galactic Hub Project capital system

… And more advice in this handy infographic!

Now that I‘ve covered the basics of using crossplay, let‘s dig into how it actually works under the NMS hood…

The Technical Side: Network Infrastructure Powering Crossplay

During the long gap between initial launch and adding full crossplay, Hello Games had to gradually convert their architecture to scale up server capacity and transition to real-time synchronization.

Let‘s get into the nitty gritty details!

Transitioning Away From Client-Server to P2P

In the beginning, No Man‘s Sky used a traditional client-server model – a single authoritative server tracking state changes for all players. This allowed only limited players per instance and required all compute to handled server-side.

Over time, they shifted towards a peer-to-peer architecture. Rather than one central server, players connect directly to each other in a mesh network to share world data. This eliminated server bottlenecks and enabled thousands of concurrent explorers!

Hello Games use a relay server to handle matchmaking and NAT punchthrough but actual gameplay traffic is P2P. For voip chat they do connect to dedicated voice servers.

Diagram showing No Man‘s Sky‘s network infrastructure combining P2P and selective dedicated servers

Crossplay Implementation Under the Hood

Enabling seamless crossplay between PC and consoles required aligning the networking protocols:

The breakthrough was bridging these infrastructure pieces so players can connect regardless of platform.

Crossplay works by translating the platform specific networking into a common custom UDP protocol that allows direct communication between distinct systems.

How the NMS networking translates between PC, Xbox and PlayStation

Playing Cross-Gen – PS4 With PS5 or Xbox One With Series X

Crossplay means not just connecting between platforms but also across generations. Due to backwards compatibility, you can bridge the generational divide!

• PS4 players can join up with PS5
• Xbox One explorers can connect to Series X|S

When partied up, the game dynamically scales graphics and performance to match the lowest common denominator. So the PS5 player effectively operates like a PS4 copy when playing with that friend on the aging launch model.

However, watch out for save incompatibilities when transferring old saves forward to new hardware. Back up your save data before trying cross-gen to avoid hiccups!

What About Nintendo Switch and Mobile – Can I Crossplay With Them?

Unfortunately, as of now you can‘t connect a Switch player with PC/PS/Xbox friends. And No Man‘s Sky is not available natively on phones or tablets. Here‘s why:

However many other games like Fortnite do support mobile and Switch crossplay so the desire is there. We can hope Hello Games expands this in future updates.

Crossplaying in Virtual Reality – Everything You Need to Know

No Mans Sky also features full virtual reality support on PC (SteamVR, Index etc) and PS4 & PS5 via PlayStation VR. This allows walking through worlds, aiming multitools naturally and literally reaching out to touch creatures.

The great news is VR users can fully crossplay with non-VR players too! Teleporting around your screen-using friends or messing with them by poking their shoulders.

Setting up VR crossplay requires a few extra steps though:

• VR Player should host the session/lobby not the flatscreener
• Set virtual movement to teleport if your friends get motion sick
• Voice chat in headsets instead of speakers for less echo/feedback

I‘d also strongly advise against VR PvP dogfights given the immersion disadvantages for the pancake version… stick to PvE group missions!

Crossplay Issues and Troubleshooting Advice

Of course, even with today‘s robust connectivity, you may occasionally encounter hiccups in getting online sessions started:

Can‘t add friend – Check your privacy settings allow adding new friends. Manually input their username.

Can‘t connect – Turn off firewalls temporarily. Forward these NMS networking ports on your router:

Multiplayer lag – Ensure all players meet these internet speeds for good performance:

Game crashing – Disable anti-virus/malware apps which may conflict. Update graphics drivers.

For additional help, ask the community or submit a ticket at the Hello Games zendesk.

Now back to the stars with you all! No squabbling over platforms when there‘s unknown cosmic horrors to band together defeating.

What Does the Future Hold for Crossplay and Other Connectivity Improvements?

With fully unified multiplayer across all major gaming devices now achieved, what additional connectivity ambitions could Hello Games realize in future expansions?

Cross-progression would be the next huge quality-of-life advancement for the community. Having universal saving and loading of discoveries, bases, currency etc between linked platforms. This means playing on PC at home then switching to mobile on the go.

However, cross-progression poses unique data storage challenges for games utilizing procedural generation like NMS according to this GDC talk. How do you transfer worlds that don‘t exist until a user visits? Not unsolvable but requiring extensive backend reworking.

Other upcoming possibilities:

• In-game friends list – Rather than relying on Steam/PSN etc friends, allowing NMS-specific friending
• Permanent posse/squad – Saved parties that stick together across sessions
• Shared storage – Pooling inventory/resources between group members
• Native voice chat – Build in voice without the need for Discord etc

One can only imagine what Hodgson and his team cook up next in their labs! But for now we have an embarrassment of multiplayer riches as is.

So charge up your launch drives and photon cannons… your comrades on alien terrain await! The worlds aren‘t going to discover themselves.

Fly dangerous, interlopers.

Summary – Answering "Is No Man‘s Sky Crossplay" Definitively

Let me make this extremely clear in closing:

Is No Man‘s Sky crossplay in 2024? Yes, absolutely! You can now play seamlessly with friends between Playstation, Xbox and PC.

Crossplay works automatically between PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S systems too in backwards compatible mode.

And VR crossplay means joining roomscale virtual worlds with flatscreen gamers.

I hope this guide brought you up to warp speed on everything No Man‘s Sky multiplayer and connectivity. Now get out there and make memories with friends under strange skies!

As always, hit me up in the comments section with requests for my next deep dive. Safe journeys all.