Not only has the exploratory space sim received three significant updates in 2022 - delivering some of the most meaningful revisions it's yet seen its six years of post-launch support, developer Hello Games has been working behind-the-scenes on bringing the game to a number of new platforms in the not-too-distant future: Switch, PSVR2, iPad, and MacOS.
Ahead of release, Eurogamer sat down with Hello Games boss Sean Murray to discuss the 'madness' of porting to Switch, No Man's Sky's eagerly anticipated 4.0 update, the studio's future, and more.
Somewhat incredibly, it's been over six years since No Man's Sky's infamously rocky launch, during which time the studio has released a staggering 20 free updates, massively changing the trajectory of the game, both in terms of its scope and reception.
Murray attributes much of the studio's revitalised outlook to No Man's Sky's ever-growing community.
It helps too, says Murray, that Hello Games has settled into a development rhythm that's able to support a closer relationship with No Man's Sky's community.
And now, we have much more solid foundations, I think - it's a joy, you know, any day there's 100,000, a few hundred thousand people playing - and we're able to put things in the game, and they can be out very quickly.
As it happens, No Man's Sky's next major update - known as 4.0 - isn't far away, arriving this Friday, 7th October, alongside the game's Switch port.
"Normally when we bump the version numbers," explains Murray, "we've added a new platform… 2.0 was Xbox, 3.0 was VR, 4.0 is Switch… and we take the time to sort of revisit the fundamentals of the game a little bit… It's a moment where we can do that, where we feel we should, because we're going to have new players coming in, starting fresh".
"For me," he continues, "this update is for if you've said, 'Look, I played No Man's Sky and I wanted to love it, but I bumped off it a bit because it was a bit grindy, [or] if you said 'I want to come back, but it's been ages and there's been so many updates and it feels overwhelming'… You've probably had this experience where you've come to a game where it's been updated a tonne and… sometimes those [elements] don't fit as cohesively as you'd like.
Additionally, 4.0 introduces No Man's Sky's first new game modes since the arrival of Creative and Survival in 2016's Foundation update.
"When we [originally] launched," explains Murray, "we made the game a little bit more difficult and more grindy, perhaps, because we didn't have the breadth of content [we do now].
As part of that goal, 4.0 adds a new Relaxed mode (playable with either a fresh or existing save), which Murray calls a "very fun version of No Man's Sky where the focus is on exploration, less on just surviving and grinding, [where it's easier] to see the six years of content that's there".
This, he says, works well for first-time players, "but I think it's [also] a common request from people who might have longer playthroughs, who might want just a game where they kick back".
"Survival is [ccurently], I think, at its strongest in the first few hours as a game mode," Murray explains, "[so] we've made it a much more challenging, more unique experience." Custom games, meanwhile, will enable players to create bespoke sessions that better fit their needs at any given time, featuring options to adjust everything "from controls, to difficulty, to how a lot of those sort of fundamentals work in terms of the pacing of the game… which opens up a whole bunch of different ways to play the game that weren't there before.".
4.0 arrives alongside No Man's Sky's Switch port, an endeavour that was met with both delight and - given the relative technical limitations of Nintendo's console - a certain degree of incredulity among fans when it was announced earlier this year.
Murray says his initial reaction to the idea of No Man's Sky on Switch was partly down to the nature of the game itself.
I mean, I've played long-form games [on Switch before] but, generally, it's hard to know how much of the rest of the world is like me - is it more focused on shorter, more mobile experience, more drop in, drop out or whatever?".
However, Murray says all his apprehensions vanished when Hello Games adapted No Man's Sky for Valve's portable Steam Deck earlier this year.
As for the technical challenges of squeezing No Man's Sky onto Switch, Murray says Hello Games has made a "concerted effort" over the last three or four years to improve No Man's Sky's performance on both top-end and lower-end machines, "and so at some point, some folks on the team were like, 'I think Switch is possible', and then everyone said the worst thing, which is like, 'No, it's not'.
By way of example, Murray explains the team had anticipated Switch would need its own version of the game's universe, expecting that the demands of procedural generation would make it impossible for Nintendo's console to have parity with other platforms.
"I would have assumed and did assume [that]," Murray admits, " [but] what's really surprised me is that we haven't done, we've managed to keep them in parity - you see a tree on the PlayStation 4 version or the PS5 version, and it's there on Switch version… So the discoveries are shared, if you name a planet or whatever, those are the same"?
As Murray puts it, "Multiplayer in No Man's Sky is important, I love it as a feature, it's great… [but] it's not our most important feature compared to other games that have multiplayer.
A lot of people play No Man's Sky effectively alone, single-player, and [Switch] is less focused on multiplayer as well, because of the nature that you're playing it on a train, you're playing on the toilet, out and about or in bed at night or whatever!
Loads of people play multiplayer games on Switch… but it's a smaller percentage, and so our attitude is release, and see how people interact with it, and see what's important to them and react to that".
"Beyond that," teases Murray, "we already have a whole bunch of stuff lined up that I think people are going to be excited for.".
Six years on from No Man's Sky's launch, though, and with the game in a healthier state than ever, it's hard not to wonder how long those updates can continue.
"I just feel lucky that people are playing it, that people care, and I feel super lucky that the team enjoys it… I just think it would be horrible to try and make a team do updates they didn't have any ideas for it or even enjoy.
And I also don't think we'd do it if the player base wasn't playing the game or enjoying it, you know.
But whilst those two things are true, it's sort of what we get out of bed in the morning for, knowing that people are playing it for longer.".
"I will be honest and say it is so surprising that it's gone on for this long," Murray adds?
But what of Hello Games' endeavours away from No Man's Sky.
And I think in five years' time, I will look back and think, 'Christ, how did we do all that with this few people?'… I think our next project is quite far along, and it's a lot further along than No Man's Sky was when we announced that.
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