Stop us if you've heard this before, but the No Man's Sky team has yet again been cookin' up a new release for its 2016 survival game – and this time, it's a mobile launch.
That's right, No Man's Sky is indeed coming to iOS over a decade after its initial release, with Hello Games planning an October 28 launch – but it hasn't come easy.
Sean Murrary says as much in a new letter regarding the exciting mobile launch, explaining that the developers first considered porting it over after bringing No Man's Sky to Mac in 2023. "Someone on the team said, 'I reckon I could get this running on an iPhone,'" as he recalls.
"I honestly didn't believe it until I played it myself for the first time," Murray continues. "A little like when we brought the game to VR or Nintendo Switch players, it started with a seemingly impossible technical challenge we wanted to disprove." And boy, did they do just that.
Witnessing No Man's Sky's universe generation working on a mobile phone remains a core memory for the studio lead – and how could it not?
"There was something magical about seeing that universe being generated on a tiny device," as he puts it.
Considering technical limitations, though, how will it work? Well, Murray assures "this is not No Man's Sky Lite."
It boasts the "full universe to explore," including the Cosmos update and every other major patch Hello Games has dropped over the years: "It even includes our most ambitious updates like Voyagers from last year."
The game won't have multiplayer or settlements day one, though, much like it didn't on the Switch at first – but it's all coming.
It'll be available on every iOS device from the iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air up. Hello Games hasn't cut corners here, either. Murray details how the studio has "rebuilt touch controls from the ground up to make No Man's Sky feel totally at home on mobile" and "put tons of work into battery life and thermodynamics."
And, if you can believe it, the file size of the mobile No Man's Sky is under 5GB – you hardly need any space on your phone, it seems. Pre-orders are live today, too, but you don't need to commit if you're not sure just yet. "In an effort to welcome as many new Travellers to the universe as possible, it'll be free to try at launch."
I personally can't wait to see how it runs on mobile devices myself, honestly… but knowing Hello Games, it'll be good.
Searching for more to look forward to this year and beyond? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming to wishlist.
