From its rocky reception in 2016 to renewed popularity after a series of significant updates, No Man's Sky has had a pretty spectacular trajectory - one that's set to reach new heights, as the game is now coming to Xbox Game Pass.

The news was announced by Hello Games founder Sean Murray via a blog post on Xbox Wire, in which he also confirmed a Windows 10 PC version of the game will be coming to the Microsoft Store.

No Man's Sky recently received a series of free updates, including the Living Ship and Exo-Mech updates earlier this year, and Murray has promised "plenty more to come".

"We have seen countless travelers join together to survive, explore, trade and base-build together, never more so than when we released the Beyond update (our eighth major free update) in 2019," Murray wrote.

"For those who have already jumped into No Man's Sky on Xbox One, I want to say thank you for being on this journey with us these past few years.

No Man's Sky had a tough time at launch, with many players left underwhelmed by what was initially offered.

Since then Hello Games has put in the work to turn player sentiment around - transforming the game into a "messy wonder", as Eurogamer's Matt Wales put it.

Opening up No Man's Sky to the millions of players who subscribe to Game Pass should provide the player base with a healthy boost - although I doubt it'll feel too overpopulated in a procedural universe with over 18 quintillion planets.

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