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‘No Man’s Sky’ PC Launch Going About As Well As ‘Arkham Knight,’ Issues Abound

By Scott Grill
Published on: 08:04 PST, Aug 12, 2016

No Man’s Sky launched this week to the PlayStation 4 to positive reviews from the press despite some controversy over the game not including multiplayer and other instances where the game does not lineup with statements made by developer Hello Games. Things really hit the fan Friday with the PC release, however, as a multitude of players are reporting performance issues and crashes with the new release.

All of the right graphics settings are there for No Man’s Sky, as revealed by Nvidia earlier this morning. The game comes with a default framerate cap of 30 frames per second (fps) but does provide an option to increase it. There’s also FOV sliders, a HUD toggle, and different options for resolution, texture, shadow, and reflection quality. Unfortunately, the game is getting absolutely savaged right now by Steam reviewers and the streaming community.

At the time of this article, there are over 5,100 reviews on Steam in the little more than two hours since the game has been released. Many players are reporting of massive stuttering issues while playing the game while others are experiencing near constant crashes. This is surprising as the system requirements for No Man’s Sky are relatively low-key.

[Image via Hello Games]
The minimum PC requirements listed include an Intel Core i3, 8 GB Ram, and a Nvidia GTX 480 or AMD Radeon 7870 graphics card. However, even players with Intel Core i7 processors and Nvidia GTX 980Ti and even the newer 1080 graphics cards are reporting constant stuttering. There are also other complaints concerning pop-in and other graphical oddities that one would not expect to see with a high-end gaming PC.

YouTube and Twitch streamer Total Biscuit was running a live stream of the game immediately after launch but had to stop mid-stream to change settings in an attempt to stop the constant stuttering. He relaunched his stream shortly thereafter, only to quit against because the stuttering was still present and did not make an enjoyable experience for his viewers.

The popular game streamer, who has over 2.2 million followers on YouTube, even made the dreaded comparison to Batman: Arkham Knight’s original PC launch.

For the unfamiliar, the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight also launched with severe performance issues, to the point Warner Bros. Interactive suspended sales of the game on Steam. The game was eventually re-released four months later following significant patching by Rocksteady Games and their partner who handled the port, Iron Galaxy Studios. The game now sits at an overall “Mixed” review score on Steam, with its recent reviews rated as “Very Positive” after several updates.

[Image via Hello Games]
As for No Man’s Sky, Sean Murray and the team at Hello Games are aware of the issues. A small patch was released for the game, but there are no details on what it fixes. Total Biscuit and others are still reporting some issues.

Murray did share a few things via his Twitter account for No Man’s Sky players to make sure they do when playing.

It will be interesting to see how and if the small indie team at Hello Games will respond to the performance issues with No Man’s Sky on PC. How quickly the studio can get these issues under control while negative reviews mount will be something to keep an eye out for.

Did you pick up No Man’s Sky for PC? What has your experience been so far? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Hello Games]

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