[UPDATE: So it seems like redownloading the game and reuploading may make your original discoveries reappear, according to the Reddit poster.]

Since launching earlier this month, No Man’s Sky players have already faced plenty of issues. The new space exploration title from Hello Games has seen complaints over framerate drops when players fly too quickly, as well as game crashes so severe that some No Man’s Sky players on PS4 have begged Sony for refunds. However, while newly released patches have made a significant difference, the troubles that players are having with the game are not quite over just yet.

Some No Man’s Sky players are now reporting that the game is systematically deleting their discoveries. In a thread on Reddit, one user explains that as they were heading towards the center of the game’s universe, they thought to themselves that they should head back to their starting planet, making use of a waypoint they’d placed.

Upon making it back, the player discovered that not only were all of their discoveries wiped, but the game also said that they’d discovered the planet on August 11 even though they’d actually discovered it on August 9 (the game’s North American PS4 release date). The discovery deletion – which includes named animals and plants (system and planet names appear to have been preserved) – was also extended to neighboring planets as well.

It doesn’t appear that this particular issue with the game is a fluke either as other No Man’s Sky players who commented on the Reddit thread have also detailed their experiences with discovery deletion. One player explained that despite their starting planet stating that they have 100% completion for animal scans, the player cannot see any of those plants or animals and they are all listed with “???????” as well. As they continued to play the game and make more discoveries, every so often they would go back to the discovery list and find that more early discoveries had been deleted, leading to the suggestion that the game systematically deletes discoveries in chronological order.

At this point, there has been no confirmation from Hello Games that this feature is intentional, though some have noted that as No Man’s Sky is procedurally generated, this may be part of that process. Some have also theorized that as No Man’s Sky will take five billions years to explore in full, it’s possible that Hello Games thought that the discovery deletion would go unnoticed as players would continue to find new discoveries rather than looking up their previous ones.

With some No Man's Sky players spending hours and hours on the starting planet, it's unclear how the discovery deletion process would affect them once they finally venture out int the wider game world. It's also unclear how this will effect the game's active player count which has already dropped significantly and could potentially slide further following this news that discoveries will not be preserved the more that they play.

No Man’s Sky is available for PC and PlayStation 4.

Source: Reddit