Here's your round-up of the biggest video game news stories from the past seven days, including the much-hyped and controversial launch of Hello Games' No Man's Sky, the rumoured reveal event for the PlayStation Neo and IO Interactive revealing they want to do two more seasons of episodic Hitman.

Below are the original stories and some intro text. For more detail, click the headlines.

No Man's Sky: Everything you need to know about Hello Games' ambitious sci-fi adventure

No Man's Sky is the most interesting major release of 2016. It may not prove the most successful game in terms of sales, but it has generated the most interest and has the most potential to offer something different to a mass gaming audience.

Announced in December 2013, the ambitious work of a small Guildford-based team instantly got people extremely excited. Promising so much but keeping the details close to its chest, the wait for No Man's Sky has been long and arduous for fans – who have regularly had to ask a particular question: what is No Man's Sky?

No Man's Sky early impressions: A daunting but thrilling start to a galactic adventure

It's strange actually playing No Man's Sky after what's felt like an eternity of build-up. Strange, that is, until you break through the atmosphere of the first procedurally generated planet your faceless, nameless explorer has crash landed on. Then, there's that thrill: the same thrill thousands of people experienced watching Hello Games' ambitious sci-fi debut two and a half years ago.

Up until that point, No Man's Sky is slow, even a bit of a slog. Unable to fly, the player has to walk and run across an alien landscape searching for the requisite minerals to get their ship going again. Of course, given each player will start on a different planet, some may fly through this initial test but others will not.

Sony to unveil PlayStation Neo in September according to reports

Sony is to lift the veil on its upgraded PlayStation 4 hardware next month (September), according to multiple reports. The event will reportedly take place on Friday 7 September in New York City, according to sources close to the gaming firm.

The original report came from French site Gameblog but was verified last night by Patrick Kelpek and Austin Walker of the US branch of Vice Gaming. A source of the latter's story says the reveal event will be a "technical showcase", with claims that as of a few weeks ago Sony was still deciding exactly what to show.

Hitman developer IO Interactive dreams of three seasons for episodic stealth hit

Square Enix's episodic Hitman series has been something of a highlight since debuting in March, with some of Agent 47's recent costume-hopping and contract-killing antics ranking among the best the series has ever had to offer. Thankfully then, it appears that developer IO Interactive has plans to continue to support the costume sandbox stealth title with additional seasons in the future.

Responding to a fan question on Twitter concerning the possibility of a second season, the official Hitman account responded by saying that the "plan is to have three seasons."

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No Man's Sky PlayStation Neo Hitman IO Interactive