After four years, a major delay, a flooded studio, legal problems, and even death threats aimed at the developers, PC and Playstation 4 space exploration adventure No Man's Sky is finally finished.

Sean Murray, head of UK-based developer Hello Games, posted a group selfie yesterday showing the team celebrating reaching the long-awaited milestone, with one member holding what's presumably the world's first finished copy of the game.

"It's happened. No Man's Sky just went gold . I'm so incredibly proud of this tiny team. 4 years of emotions," Murray wrote. Going gold, for those who don't know, refers to when a game is ready to be sent off for manufacturing and distribution.

No Man's Sky was beset by problems throughout its development, starting with the flood on Christmas Eve 2013 that destroyed the team's office. Despite the destruction of so much equipment and the team being forced to move to temporary cramped locations, Murray promised that the disruption wouldn't cause No Man's Sky to be delayed.

In June of this year, Murray announced that the game wouldn't be ready for its original release date of June 21, as it needed "more polish." But it seemed that some people just couldn't wait to start exploring the virtual universe; both Murray and Kotaku reported Jason Schreier received death threats following the news.

To cap things off, Murray then revealed that Hello Games had been locked in a three-year legal battle with British broadcaster Sky TV over the use of the word "Sky" in the game's name. Thankfully, an agreement between the two companies had finally been reached. Sky had already forced Microsoft to change the name of its online storage platform from SkyDrive to OneDrive.

We'll find out if No Man's Sky was worth it all when it's launched in North America release on August 9.