Explore Stephen Colbert's Star System In No Man's Sky

According to late night talk show host Stephen Colbert, there's a new deity in town and his name is Sean Murray, creator of upcoming PlayStation 4/PC title, No Man's Sky. Murray dropped by The Late Show to represent his studio, Hello Games, as well as introduce Colbert to the game, who was appropriately flabbergasted by the sheer scope of it.

It's been a few months since E3, which means the gaming community was due for another dose of No Man's Sky hype. In case you were hoping that a release date would be revealed, you've got another thing coming. Murray stated that the highly-anticipated launch of his universe exploration game is “still a secret,” breaking the hearts of would be adventurers everywhere.

Before going into a brief demonstration of No Man's Sky, Colbert said what we've all been thinking; “Well, let's talk about the thing everybody wants you to release.”

If you've watched any of the recent media surrounding No Man's Sky, nothing here will be news to you. Murray and his team did a good job of condensing the experience into a few minutes, though, showing off many of the game's key features, fielding almost too perfect questions from Colbert and then demonstrating the unfathomable scope of No Man's Sky.

Murray went into how the game uses maths to create everything players will experience, from the planets the their foliage and wildlife. The result of this is a universe measuring more than 18 quintillion planets, so good luck to you completionists in the audience! The galaxy is so big, in fact, there's no way the team could properly play test everything that's growing and evolving out in those star systems. To make up for that, they've gone so far as to build virtual probe programs that shoot off into the vastness and send home screen caps to help make sure everything's coming along nicely.

To cap off the show, Murray explained how the game's naming system works, going so far as to give multiple creatures monikers in honor of the Late Show host. There was a Colbison, a Molebert, a Stephenus Rex, a swimming Codbert and a lumbering Colbertasaurus. One of the planets was named Colbert Prime, while the collection of stars was named the Colbert System. Assuming that wasn't all for show, you may stumble upon all of that at one point while playing the game. But again, No Man's Sky is so vast that the chances of even running into another player aren't that great.

It's nice to see Colbert treating Murray and No Man's Sky with as much respect as he would an actor and their movie clip. He gets that, even if what he's seeing isn't necessarily his or his audience's cup of tea, there is a huge group of viewers who are excited for this thing to finally arrive and appreciate it being treated with at least a little respect.

Ryan Winslett

Staff Writer for CinemaBlend.