NMS is a very niche game without lasting appeal. It will have its cult following but that's about it.
Big? Yes. But that kind of procedural generation doesn't lend itself well to most genres. It's fine for this game but only for a specific goal, like in this case having a lot of different planets. I can see them doing a lot more procedural generated games after this but I doubt any of them will become so major as to affect the industry at all.
Immersive? I strongly disagree. The kind of generation this game uses is basically the complete opposite of immersion since it does not offer world consistency. You fly to a planet, kill everything that moves and gather all resources. Then you fly out of the atmosphere and come back and everything is back to normal as if you were never there. The extreme closeness of planets and stars will also put off many scify fans.
It's a great game for people like me who like exploration. But for my taste it goes to far. Exploration in video games is great because there is a finite number of things to explore and you will be rewarded for it. It's nice to discover things that have been placed there for you to find it. It has a purpose and a reward. In NMS there is no feeling of reward because no one meant to reward you. It's just put there and doesn't care if you find it or not. Why would I want to discover something that has no purpose and is just one of a million very similar things.
Imagine a an Easter egg hunt on an egg farm with millions of eggs strewn on the floor in front of you. Kinda defeats the purpose of exploring and finding eggs.
So no, NMS will not set the gaming world on fire. But it will deliver a good amount of hours of fun to a certain type of gamer and even more to some dedicated folks.
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