No Man's Sky 4.0 update and Switch release are coming in just a few short days. It was something that even Hello Games studio head Sean Murray (whose only relation to the author of this article is a shared love of No Man's Sky) thought was impossible, and yet, here we are on verge of Switch getting the best space survival game ever made.
What's absurd about No Man's Sky is how all 18 quintillion planets have been stuffed into the coming Switch release. When Hello Games embarked on the Switch port, it was initially assumed that the Switch's humble hardware wouldn't be able to support the standard procedural generation No Man's Sky uses on other platforms, necessitating a pared-down version of the game's universe exclusively for the Switch. In an interview with Eurogamer, Murray said there was no need.
"What's really surprised me is that we haven't done [that], 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," he said. "So the discoveries are shared, if you name a planet or whatever, those are the same."
No Man's Sky won't be entirely the same on the Switch, however. Hello Games has omitted multiplayer from the Switch release--at least, for now. Murray said that while multiplayer is important, it's not No Man's Sky's most important feature.
"A lot of people play No Man's Sky effectively alone, single-player," Murray said. He expects the Switch's mobility to be its most important feature, noting to Eurogamer, "It has been a real surprise to me to see it in the top 10, top five of the most played games on [Steam Deck] for months and months."
As for what to expect in 4.0, Murray has hinted that it might be lighter on content than previous updates, but expect an extensive balance and gameplay place that will reduce the game's grind and better integrate the many new systems added in No Man's Sky's 20 title updates. There's also the new "Relaxed" mode where "focus is on exploration, less on just surviving and grinding, [where it's easier] to see the six years of content that's there."
No Man’s Sky 4.0 and Switch release both arrive on October 7.