No Man's Sky is officially coming to iPhone and iPad. Hello Games announced that its long-running sci-fi exploration game will launch on iOS on October 28, and players can pre-order it now. According to studio co-founder Sean Murray, this is not a stripped-down port: nearly everything from the full game is included, except multiplayer and planetary settlements, which will stay absent at launch just as they were on the original Nintendo Switch version.
The release is part of Apple's Indie Games Week on the App Store, a promotion highlighting new and upcoming indie titles for iPhone and iPad. For mobile players, it marks a rare moment: a decade-old console and PC game arriving on phones with its full history of updates intact, and a download that Hello Games says comes in at a surprisingly small 5GB.
No Man's Sky iOS details and device requirements
Murray wrote in a blog post that the iOS version includes all the updates released since the game's 2016 debut, including the huge Voyagers expansion. The only major features missing are multiplayer and planetary settlements, though he said Hello Games will support iOS based on player feedback and numbers, similar to how it expanded the game on Switch, eventually adding those features to the Switch 2 version.
The port supports newly designed touch controls, controllers, screen casting, and mouse-and-keyboard input on iPad. Hello Games also says it worked heavily on battery life and thermals so players can enjoy long sessions. No Man's Sky is free to try at launch, but the studio hasn't said how much the full version will cost.
Compatibility is broader than many console-to-mobile ports: the game runs on iPhone 11 and 3rd generation iPad Air and above. As for the rest of Apple's Indie Games Week, Sifu, Vampire Crawlers, Dome Keeper and Little Kitty, Big City are among the highlighted titles, and other indies like Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall and 9 Kings are already available. Apple's head of App Store Worldwide, Carson Oliver, said the company wanted to celebrate the indie teams taking creative risks.
