It’s a big day for No Man’s Sky thanks to the launch of cross-save support, the release of PS5 Pro footage, and the return of the Normandy from Mass Effect.
Following hot on the heels of the Halloween-themed The Cursed update, Hello Games’ long-running space sim finally has cross-save support on all platforms, a feature the developer said had been years in the making. “This has been a huge undertaking, and is one of most requested features,” Hello Games said.
“Being able to jump seamlessly between platforms is really transformative. Players can play from the comfort of their sofa on console, continue an Expedition on the move with Switch or Steam Deck, build an incredible base on their beefy PC rig, and view it in incredibly immersive Virtual Reality.”
No Man’s Sky now supports cross-play and cross-save between a huge number of platforms including PC, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S, Game Pass, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, PlayStation VR 1 and 2, and PCVR.
“Adding the ability to transfer saves between platforms via a server is especially difficult for No Man’s Sky, as the work involved increases with each platform supported and how long folks have already been playing for,” Hello Games continued. “Both those numbers are large for our tiny team.
“It’s very common for players to rack up thousands of hours of saves exploring across space, building elaborate bases and cataloging their discoveries, with incredibly detailed saves. Adding cross-save for us is a little bit like moving house, the longer people have lived there the more complicated it is to move them! We also have players who played once at launch, eight years ago, suddenly loading up that save on a platform that didn’t even exist back then!
“For these reasons we have secretly been introducing the technology for this update for over six months. We are now ready to start rolling cross-save out to a small number of players.”
From today, No Man’s Sky all players can link their different accounts together at https://cloud.nomanssky.com/cross-save. A subset of players will be enabled to then select their saves from multiple devices on the in-game save screen. In the coming weeks all players will be invited to do so, Hello Games added.
Moving on to today’s launch of PS5 Pro and No Man’s Sky’s support for the $700 mid-gen upgrade, Hello Games said users can expect PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) to provide 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. No Man's Sky is also an early supporter of 8K resolution, running at 30 frames per second.
Check out No Man’s Sky running on PS5 Pro in the video below:
“As well as a much sharper resolution at higher framerates, the increased power of the PS5 Pro has enabled us to ramp up the graphical quality across the board,” Hello Games explained.
“Players on PS5 Pro will see improved lighting, with ultra quality reflections and higher quality ambient occlusion in all modes. Explore the most beautiful and detailed alien worlds No Man's Sky has to offer, for the first time on console.” All these improvements are also coming to PSVR2, Hello Games added.
And finally, the Normandy from Mass Effect returns to No Man’s Sky as part of BioWare's N7 Day celebrations.
“It was back in 2021 that the Normandy made its first appearance in one of the first expeditions we ever ran,” Hello Games said. “The limited-time expedition starts today, runs for two weeks and culminates in players being able to claim the Normandy for their fleet.
“In the intervening years since that event, we have welcomed a huge number of Travellers, not least a whole new cohort of Switch players and an increasingly large number of Chinese fans. Many of these new players have envied those who proudly displayed their Normandy in their frigate collection.
“Mass Effect fans know that this legendary freighter only appears when it is most needed! Today, and for the next two weeks, as a love-letter from one science fiction game to another, we are giving everyone another chance to encounter the Normandy in an overhauled version of the original mission and add it to their collection.
“Huge thanks to our friends at EA and Bioware for helping make this happen.”
No Man's Sky launched in 2016 initially for PC and PS4 before coming out on Xbox One in 2018, and PS5 and Xbox Series X and S in 2020. A Nintendo Switch version followed in 2022. Over the years, Hello Games has issued a long list of major updates that have continued to boost player numbers.
Indeed, it's a busy time for Hello Games, which alongside updates for No Man’s Sky is working on its next game, Light No Fire. It's about adventure, building, survival and exploration together, set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
