No Man’s Sky in-game economy detailed

No Man's Sky is the featured game for the month of July on IGN First and the details that have been coming out about the game are tantalizing.  In the latest reveal, Sean Murray, managing director at Hello Games, and the face of the game itself, gave players a taste of what they can expect when they set out to make money in the game's open universe.

The big takeaway from the interview is that it will ultimately be up to the player how they want to make money.  Every planet will have resources that can be mined and gathered that can be used to create a variety of products which can then be taken to a trading post or space port to be sold.  Murray also mentions that not every port will have the same prices for the same items, so players should be wary of where they go to sell their goods.  The obvious perk of this system is that players can buy items in one place and sell them at another to make a profit.

Another point of interest is that players don't even have to set down on any planets to make a buck. "Perhaps you're the type of person that just never wants to do that…..you don't like visiting planets, you want to play a space game…You can go from space station to space station, just buying goods at the space station for a lower price and selling them somewhere else for a higher price" says Murray.

The game's commerce also operates independently of player input.  There are A.I. controlled trading vessels that travel to planets, gathering resources then bringing them up and into space stations to be sold and traded.  The player may also choose to attack these vessels and steal their resources, if they decide to play as a pirate.

No Man's Sky is promising a nearly limitless amount of possibilities in a game world that Murray claims is impossible to fully explore.  There is no concrete release date for No Man's Sky at this time, but it is expected to land on Playstation 4 and PC sometime this year.