No Man's Sky has spent ten years adding planetside systems, vehicles, settlements, expeditions and plenty more, but its new Cosmos update goes after something surprisingly basic: the space between all those planets. Update 7.0 is live on PS5, and Hello Games describes it as the game's biggest overhaul of space in a decade.
For PlayStation players, the headline is pleasantly uncomplicated. Hello Games' PlayStation Blog post says Cosmos is available without additional cost to existing PlayStation players. The current PlayStation game page continues to list No Man's Sky for PS4 and PS5, with PS VR2 support optional on PS5.
Space is finally a place to do things, not just cross
Cosmos adds a new star map that reveals points of interest when players warp into a system. Those locations feed new missions and exploration, including deep-space outposts where resources can be processed, maps and information can be picked up, and contracts can be taken on.
Then there are the space hulks. These colossal wrecks can be explored and stripped for valuable technology and cargo, but taking too much can destabilize the structure. Asteroid belts add another resource layer, including rare asteroids large enough to land on. Players can also establish free-floating orbital bases rather than keeping every construction project attached to a planet.
The update goes bigger again with space-station ownership. Hello Games says players can become directors of stations, customize interiors and exteriors, and use those stations as a base for new alliances. Alliances let groups coordinate exploration and compete around territory and prominence. Cosmos even opens a route toward the star at the centre of a system, turning something that used to be scenery into a destination.
That pile of features could sound like separate checklist items, but the connection is fairly clear. The update is trying to give empty space the same sort of loop No Man's Sky already has on planets: scan, travel, find something strange, collect resources, build, and then show the result to other players. It is a structural change to where the game expects time to be spent.
The anniversary expedition doubles as a history lesson
Cosmos also launches the Our Journey Continues expedition for the game's tenth anniversary. Hello Games says its milestones represent the more than 40 major updates released since No Man's Sky arrived in 2016, with gameplay and developer commentary reflecting features added along the way.
That is a neat companion to a release that is changing one of the oldest untouched parts of the game. The anniversary content looks backward while Cosmos tries to make the original space-game fantasy busier and more social.
There is an important limit to the hype here: the developer is describing the scale and intent of its own update. Those claims do not prove that every new activity will have long-term depth, and this article is not based on first-hand testing. What is confirmed is the feature set, the free-update status for existing PlayStation players, and the fact that Update 7.0 is live.
If you already have No Man's Sky on PS5, there is no separate expansion decision to make. Cosmos is the current game update. The practical reason to return is whether station ownership, orbital construction, salvageable hulks and a much busier map of space sound more interesting than another lap around familiar planets.
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