No Man's Sky release date confirmed as 21 June by Hello Games

Players now finally know when they can start exploring the game's 18 quintillion planets

One of the quintillions of planets players will be able to explore in No Man's Sky (Hello Games)

Long-awaited open universe game No Man's Sky is launching on 21 June, it has been announced.

Sean Murray, the managing director of developers Hello Games, revealed the launch date on the official PlayStation blog on Thursday.

Even though little has actually been known about the game until fairly recently, it's gained a cult following from gamers excited to experience its enormous universe.

No Man's Sky is an adventure survival game, set in a futuristic universe. Its vast environment is completely open and procedurally generated, featuring over 18 quintillion unique planets that players will be able to explore at will, gathering resources, killing (or befriending) aliens and upgrading their possessions as the game goes on.

Interestingly, if they're connected to the internet, all the players will exist in the same universe - but since the game environment is so huge, the chances of two people ever bumping into each other is tiny.

The idea of a complete universe simulation has been a dream of gamers everywhere since Pac-Man, so it's no wonder there's been so much hype around it since it was unveiled at E3 2014.

Early hands-on previews have been published this week, and it looks like it's lived up to all its promises. Now we just have to wait.

It'll be released on 21 June for PlayStation 4 and PC. Preorders have already opened on Steam, and PS4 owners will have the option to buy it on Blu-ray if they want to.