In a jokey interview with Eurogamer’s Chris Bratt (below), No Man’s Sky director Sean Murray confirms what we all suspected: the center of the game’s procedurally-generated universe is Peter Molyneux, who himself possibly possesses multiple No Man’s Sky universes.
“It has got a Curiosity vibe to it,” says Bratt, referring to Molyneux’s much-hyped mobile game where players collectively chipped their way to the center of a massive cube. At the center of the cube, it turned out, was the opportunity to be featured as the ‘god’ in Molyneux’s next game — a project which has since floundered. “Is it Peter Molyneux? Is Peter Molyneux at the middle of your universe? [Because] I expect and demand that.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Murray answers, after a moment’s pause. “The camera will zoom out and you’re going to find that [No Man’s Sky‘s] entire universe is inside the cube. And then Peter is like — you know, like David Bowie, in Labyrinth, where he has the crystal balls and he’s rotating them, that’s Peter with our universe.”
“It makes a lot of sense when you break it down like that,” Bratt agrees.
All kidding aside, there are some thoughtful observations here. Murray laments that his team spent a great deal of time on the game’s combat systems, only for many reporters to ignore it completely, and how the 30 minute hands-on demos common to reportage are not a great way to showcase the game to players.
“That’s kind of crap, actually,” Murray says candidly. “That’s not how people will play No Man’s Sky. It’s not that type of game. It’s a kind of sandbox game. And it suits, I think, sitting at home and playing it for three hours, five hours.” He goes on:
We say ‘the goal is to get to the center of the universe’ and I think that’s kind of a cool concept, there’s reasons why [marketing] would wanna do that. And it’s probably, for most people, a nice point where they can put down the controller and feel satisfied that they ‘played’ it and completed it. But actually I’m hoping that’s not what most people do.
Why, Murray? Because the knowledge that there’s a little Peter Molyneux inside us all is a truth too harsh to bear? Are there things in the universe we’re better off not discovering??
Check out the entire video below. Cheers to Eurogamer for asking the tough questions on this one.
No Man’s Sky will be hitting storefronts this June.
Kris Ligman is the News Editor of ZAM. They actually didn’t see Labyrinth until well into adulthood, so their Bowie of choice will always be Nikola Tesla from The Prestige. You can find Kris on Twitter @KrisLigman.
