No Man's Sky has officially gone gold, Hello Games announces

After four years in development, multiple delays, a legal dispute with Sky and some vicious death threats, developer Hello Games has gleefully announced that its highly anticipated sci-fi adventure No Man's Sky is finally finished.

Sean Murray, Hello Games founder and the game's creative lead, took to Twitter on 7 July to post a group selfie of the team celebrating the long-awaited milestone, with the first finished copy of the game set for release in August.

"It's happened. No Man's Sky just went gold. I'm so incredibly proud of this tiny team. 4 years of emotions," Murray wrote.

"Going gold," in game development, means the main development has officially been completed and the game is ready to be sent for manufacturing and distribution.

The announcement comes just days after the developer teased an update about the game's development process in a tweet that reads: "Things are happening."

First announced in 2013, No Man's Sky was recently voted the most anticipated game of 2016 by Amazon UK customers, beating other notable contenders such as Battlefield 1, Mafia 3 and Fifa 17.

The incredibly ambitious and complex game features a visually stunning, procedurally generated universe that will include over 18 quintillion planets and would take some 585 billion years to fully explore, according to the developer's estimates.

During the long development process, the indie developer encountered some obstacles. In April, Murray revealed that he contemplated canning the game altogether after a devastating flood damaged the studio's office on Christmas Eve in 2013.

The title was initially supposed to be released in June but was pushed back to August - a move that triggered a severe backlash from fans and even resulted in death threats being sent to the developer. Still, Murray maintained that delaying the game was the right decision to make, saying: "We get one shot to make this game and we can't mess it up."

Murray also recently explained that the studio decided to skip E3 2016 so they could work on the game rather than attend to "build more hype". In June, Murray revealed that the studio had ended a three-year-long battle with British broadcaster Sky over the game's name.

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

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