Hello Games says No Man's Sky's massive universe takes up just 6 GB on disc, already working on first update

Hello Games' upcoming adventure survival game, No Man's Sky, is easily one of the most anticipated games of 2016 due to its massively ambitious and complex procedurally generated universe. The game's creative lead and studio founder, Sean Murray, however, has revealed that the game's stunning 18 quintillion planets, that have been estimated to take around 585 billion years to explore, will take up just 6GB of space on disc, most of which is audio.

"For those asking – size of No Man's Sky on disc is just 6GB. A lot of that is audio," Murray wrote in a tweet on Monday (11 July)

The developer also noted the game has already passed certification in Europe, the US and Asia and is currently being submitted for certification in Japan.

Last week, Murray took to Twitter to announce that the long-awaited game has finally gone gold, celebrating with a group selfie of a thrilled development team and a copy of the disc.

In video game development, the term "going gold" means that the game has officially wrapped up its development process and is ready to go for manufacturing and distribution.

However, the indie studio does not seem to be taking a break with Murray revealing that they are "already busy on Update 1" for the game's massive universe.

He did not give any details about the update or when it is expected to release.

Earlier this month, audio director Paul Weir teased that the upcoming game will include a brand new levelling up system when it launches next month.

"It's landscape generation," Weir told the Daily Express. "There are creatures, so it's AI behaviour on the creatures."

"There's weather systems, ecosystems, and your job is to explore them [planets], to gather resources, to have adventures, to avoid being attacked by the creatures, to level up - there's a whole levelling up mechanic which we haven't actually shown publicly yet."

Recently voted the most anticipated game of 2016 by Amazon UK customers, No Man's Sky was originally expected to launch in June but pushed its release date to August, triggering a fierce response from some fans including a "ton of death threats" targeting the developer.

Murray, however, recently said that the studio's decision to delay the game was the right one to make.

"This is a type of game that hasn't been attempted before, by a smaller team than anyone would expect, under an intense amount of expectation," Murray said. "This is the hardest working, most talented team I've ever worked with, and I'm so proud of what we're doing. For all our sakes though, we get one shot to make this game and we can't mess it up."

No Man's Sky is slated for release on 10 August in Europe and the UK and 9 August in North America for PS4 and PC.