Four years after launch, No Man's Sky's giant sandworms are finally here

(Image credit: Hello Games)

Back in 2013, gamers were mesmerized by the announcement trailer for No Man's Sky, which included beautiful sci-fi landscapes, bizarre alien structures, otherworldly fauna, and laser battles in outer space.

And then there was that shot of several enormous sandworm-type creatures burrowing along a desert planet, like something out of Dune. It was just one of many moments from that early trailers that thrilled us—but I'm sure I don't have to tell you those sandworms never made it into the game, one of many complaints players had after No Man's Sky's 2016 launch.

Well, here's a newsflash for you: Holy shiiiiiiiit. The sandworms are finally here:

ABOVE: No Man's Sky Origin Update trailer, also on YouTube.

That. Is a big. Worm.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray said in 2018 that the sandworms were cut from the game before launch because they were overpowered and "People would hate them within the game." But it looks like Hello Games has had a change of heart—and I would assume found a way to make them fun.

Personally, I don't care if they're fun. I don't care if they eat me and my ship in a single gulp. Just look at 'em! They're awesome.

And, as you can see in the trailer above, massive sandworms aren't all that's been added with No Man's Sky's new Origins update. We talked to Sean Murray this week and we've got a rundown of some of the new features in the Origins update right here.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.