Hello Games released Cosmos, No Man's Sky's 7.0 update, on September 9, marking ten years since the game's launch. The update is free for existing players and, unusually for a game that has spent a decade expanding in almost every other direction, it is aimed squarely at the space between planets.
No Man's Sky is often referred to as 'a Space Game,' it's a huge part of our game, but we've never really updated space since release. In most sci-fi games, space is just an empty void. With Cosmos we wondered - can we make space feel truly alive?
The headline addition is space station ownership, which Hello Games said has been the most-requested feature since No Man's Sky launched in 2016. Players can buy the station in a system of their choosing, build and decorate it inside and out, and invite other players to visit. Station directors can also found alliances — described by MassivelyOP as guilds — with a customisable name and banner, pooling members' influence and competing on new leaderboards.
What else Cosmos adds
Warping into a system now begins with a scan of a new star map that reveals points of interest and the mission strands attached to them. Among them are large “space hulks” that can be stripped for salvage using the physics gravity gun added earlier this year, with debris thrown to a new tractor beam fitted to the player's ship. Hello Games warned that stripping too much from a hulk can cause it to melt down and explode, so scanning for the highest-value parts first is the safer approach.
- Space outposts where players can trade with alien lifeforms, buy maps, gather local information and pick up missions
- Bio-wrecks, some overwhelmed by biological hazards that must be cleared before the site can be reclaimed
- Asteroid belts of rock and ice formations carrying crystal resources, with rare asteroids large enough to land and build on
- Free-floating modular orbital bases that can be deployed anywhere in space using a deep-space base computer
- The ability for any character to leave their ship on EVA, plus tractor beams for corvettes
The update also makes each system's star reachable for the first time since launch. “Stars in each system are now reachable via long-haul flight,” the patch notes read. “These burning spheres of plasma are bright, spectacular, but ultimately lethal. Reach the sun at your own risk.” MassivelyOP confirmed the trip is fatal to the player character.
Cosmos launched alongside a tenth-anniversary expedition, Our Journey Continues, with milestones representing each of the 40 major updates No Man's Sky has received since 2016. “It is like a museum of each update, unlocking the features of each update as we added them, along with a spacelog of interesting facts and developers commentary for each update,” Murray said. Rewards listed by MassivelyOP include commemorative in-game wall art, a diplodocus companion, a vintage multi-tool and a vintage spaceship.
Murray described the work as groundwork for the studio's next game as well. “All of this is tech we get to test now, refine, and hopefully players will also experience it on our other game, Light No Fire,” he said. Light No Fire does not have a release date. Full patch notes are posted on the No Man's Sky website, and Polygon lists the game as available on Mac, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.