This 10 Year Old Sci-Fi Gaming Staple Will Be Worth Adding To Your iPad Soon
It's been a little over 10 years since "No Man's Sky" first launched on PC in August 2016, and over that time, the space exploration game has changed a lot. Now it's making the jump to yet another platform, as Hello Games has confirmed that "No Man's Sky" is coming to iPhone and iPad on October 28. You can already pre-order it on the App Store, and with the beginning of the game being free to play, you don't really have to commit to anything right away, either.
We've seen a handful of big console games make the jump to iPad over the past couple of years, with "Resident Evil Village" hitting Apple tablets in 2023 and "Death Stranding: Director's Cut" following in early 2024. The problem with a lot of those ports, though, is that you needed a fairly new iPad to play them. When Hideo Kojima confirmed the Apple devices that can play "Death Stranding", only iPads with an M1 chip or newer made the cut, and "Resident Evil Village" had that same requirement. "No Man's Sky" is a bit different, though, as it will run on iPads dating back to 2019.
Nearly everything from the last 10 years is included
Hello Games has been updating "No Man's Sky" for years now, and the iOS version is going to include over forty of those major updates. That covers everything from last year's "Voyagers" update, which brought Corvette-class ships to the game, to the "Cosmos" update that Hello Games put out for the game's 10th anniversary. Back in 2016, many players felt the game was missing features they had seen in trailers, and enough of them complained that the UK's Advertising Standards Authority looked into the game's marketing shortly after release.
Multiplayer isn't supported on iOS, and Planetary Settlements will only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer, with Hello Games not mentioning anything about iPad support for them. The original Switch version was in the same boat when it launched in 2022 without multiplayer or settlements, and Hello Games founder Sean Murray said at the time that they left settlements out over performance concerns.
Whether multiplayer or settlements could show up later is still up in the air. The announcement only says Hello Games will support the iOS version "based on how many folks are playing". "No Man's Sky" made multiplayer a priority with its "Beyond" update back in 2019, and even last year's "Voyagers" update added multiplayer missions for crews flying Corvettes together. If that's a big part of how you play, the console and PC versions are still going to be the better pick.
You won't need a new iPad to try it
One thing we didn't expect is how old an iPad you can get away with using. Hello Games says the game will run on the iPhone 11 and third-generation iPad Air or newer. Apple released that iPad Air in March 2019, and it runs the A12 Bionic chip. This is surprising because both "Resident Evil Village" and "Death Stranding" needed at least an M1 to run on iPad. An iPad from seven years ago is enough to run it, and you don't need to go out and buy one of the most powerful gaming tablets on the market in 2026 just to play.
Hello Games also says it spent a lot of time on battery life and thermals for the mobile version, and it rebuilt the touch controls for phones and tablets. The download is under 4GB, compared to the 15GB that the PC version needs on Steam. If touch controls aren't your thing, you can use a controller instead, and iPad owners can even hook up a mouse and keyboard. If you don't have a controller yet, there are some iPad gaming accessories that will transform how you play worth checking out.
You can play the beginning of the game for free, and unlocking everything else is a one-time $19.99 purchase through the App Store. We'd start with the free part and go from there, especially if you're planning to play on an older iPad and want to see how well it runs first.