It's been another busy year for No Man's Sky. Not only has the exploratory space sim received three significant updates in 2022 - delivering some of the most meaningful revisions it's yet seen its six years of post-launch support, developer Hello Games has been working behind-the-scenes on bringing the game to a number of new platforms in the not-too-distant future: Switch, PSVR2, iPad, and MacOS. Of those, Switch comes first, arriving on Nintendo's console - alongside a major 4.0 update for all players - this Friday, 7th October. Ahead of release, Eurogamer sat down with Hello Games boss Sean Murray to discuss the 'madness' of porting to Switch, No Man's Sky's eagerly anticipated 4.0 update, the studio's future, and more.
ON THE STATE OF THINGS IN 2022
Somewhat incredibly, it's been over six years since No Man's Sky's infamously rocky launch, during which time the studio has released a staggering 20 free updates, massively changing the trajectory of the game, both in terms of its scope and reception. "In general," Murray tells me when I ask about the studio's outlook in 2022, "I think we're a really happy team. I think we're sort of the happiest and the most productive we've been in the last five or six years… The launch of No Man's Sky, if I was to plot that on a graph, it was maximum stress, and there's been a gradual but steady improvement year-on-year in how we do things and within the team. I think we're enjoying it, you know."