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No Man's Sky is getting an 'eerie' free update next week called The Abyss

"In keeping with the theme of this season."

Hello Games has unveiled The Abyss - an 'eerie' new update for its exploratory sci-fi sim No Man's Sky, which is due to launch some time next week.

The news comes via a posting on the No Man's Sky website, which revealed that while the majority of Hello Games' team is concentrating on the game's ongoing weekly updates, bug fixes and improvements, "a handful have been working on something else, our first titled update since NEXT".

Hello Games hasn't yet detailed what will be included in the new update, known as The Abyss, but did reveal that it will focus "on some of the eerier elements of No Man's Sky, in keeping with the theme of this season."

An obvious candidate for possible expansion as part of The Abyss would be No Man's Sky's Biological Horrors, which were introduced in the NEXT update and appear whenever players attack Whispering Eggs. However, there's plenty of room for additional spookiness in a universe consisting of 18 quintillion planets, so it'll be interesting to see what's in store.

The Abyss will be a free update for No Man's Sky, and arrives on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4 some time next week.