No Man’s Sky launches on iPhone and iPad on October 28 for $20

Hello Games will release No Man’s Sky for iPhone and iPad on October 28. The studio says the mobile edition will include the full space adventure and its many updates.

The mobile release will cost $20, with a free trial available before purchase. It will run on devices starting with iPhone 11.

Touch controls and peripherals

The team adapted the controls for touchscreens while also supporting controllers, mouse and keyboard. The developers say the mobile edition is designed to deliver console-quality graphics and gameplay.

The port has been in development for almost three years. In an interview with Polygon, Sean Murray said the team had to focus particularly closely on performance and memory use.

Optimizations shared with a new game

Some of the technical solutions came from work on Light No Fire, Hello Games’ next title announced in 2023. Because both projects use the same engine, the optimizations could also be applied to No Man’s Sky.

The developers had previously considered bringing the game to smartphones practically impossible. Murray said more powerful mobile devices and additional optimization helped overcome the technical limits; he also said some changes could benefit the PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch versions.

Light No Fire is planned as a cooperative adventure in a fantasy world built around one enormous procedurally generated planet. It still has no specific release date.