Ten years after its initial release, Hello Games' sprawling sci-fi title No Man's Sky is set to land on a new platform: mobile. The game will be available for iPhone and iPad starting October 28, with preorders now open. This mobile version includes all decade's worth of updates and will run on devices as old as the iPhone 11. Hello Games founder Sean Murray stated that the development of this port was made possible in part by the work being done on Light No Fire, the studio's upcoming PC game.
The project began roughly three years ago, a period that coincided with No Man's Sky's Mac port release. While Murray acknowledged that a more conventional developer might deem the game too demanding for mobile, the team at Hello Games embraced the challenge. The result is a remarkably comprehensive port that includes every update released to date, such as the recent Cosmos DLC. While settlements and multiplayer are absent at launch, mirroring the game's Nintendo Switch debut, Murray suggested these features could be added post-launch based on player feedback. The mobile version supports full touch controls, redesigned menus, and controller and mouse/keyboard input on iPad.
Performance on older hardware is a standout achievement. No Man's Sky is playable on devices as far back as the iPhone 11 and iPad Air (3rd generation), with the entire game fitting under 5 GB.
No Man's Sky on iPhone
Murray attributes the game's mobile performance to Hello Games' long-standing need to optimize for platforms like the PlayStation 4, the game's original launch system. However, advancements made during the development of Light No Fire were crucial for the mobile port. "To bring it to iPhone and iPad, we’ll have, without people realizing it over the last few years, resulted in a better experience on those other platforms," Murray explained. "Because we have had to think really hard about where are we going to get this performance from, and how are we going to fit in our memory profile better. And some of those changes have come from Light No Fire. Things that we’ve been doing there where we’ve had to make things more performant, we’re going, oh, we can carry that across to all of this. It’s all one shared engine."
No Man's Sky on iPad
Light No Fire, announced at The Game Awards in 2023, is a procedurally generated multiplayer survival game that has garnered significant attention, becoming one of Steam's most wishlisted titles. Murray noted that the development teams for both games often collaborate due to their shared technology. "Sometimes we’re developing on Light No Fire and it creates an idea, and we think, that would be really cool on No Man’s Sky," he said. "Voyagers was an example of that, where we developed some technology on Light No Fire that we then thought, this would allow us to do these ships people could fly around in in No Man’s Sky. There are benefits when we do that for both projects. Light No Fire is then getting technology tested and hardened."
No Man's Sky will be priced at $19.99 on iOS, with a free trial available. Light No Fire does not yet have a release date.