What Is the Cosmos Update?
On September 9, 2026, independent developer Hello Games released No Man's Sky Update 7.0: Cosmos — which they're calling the biggest overhaul in the game's ten-year history. It's free for everyone who already owns No Man's Sky, across every platform.
Sean Murray, founder of Hello Games, framed it plainly in an official PlayStation Blog post:
“"The biggest overhaul to space the No Man's Sky universe has seen in 10 years." — Sean Murray, Hello Games founder
That's a significant claim for a game that has shipped over 40 major free updates since its troubled 2016 launch. Cosmos focuses specifically on the void between planets: open space itself, which had remained largely unchanged throughout the entire first decade.
Sources: No Man's Sky Official Site — Cosmos Update · PlayStation Blog — Sean Murray's announcement
The Comeback That Keeps Going
No Man's Sky launched in August 2016 to one of gaming's loudest pre-release hypes and one of its sharpest critical crashes. The game arrived missing features that had been shown in trailers; early reviews were brutal; the backlash was substantial enough to put Hello Games' future in question. For months, the studio went quiet.
Then they started shipping updates.
“"One of the most controversial video games of all time turned 10 last month, and if you've stuck with No Man's Sky throughout the last decade then you'll know that it's also one of the great comeback stories." — Engadget
Since 2016, Hello Games has shipped 40+ free major updates — adding base building, multiplayer, expeditions, living ships, VR support, and now the complete overhaul of space itself. Cosmos is Update 7.0 in that line.
Source: Engadget — "No Man's Sky gets largest update yet to mark 10th anniversary"
Official Trailer
What's New in Cosmos — Full Feature Breakdown
Space Station Directorship
The biggest new feature. Players can now become the director of their local Space Station after meeting requirements set by that system's local authorities.
As Director, you can:
- ▶Redesign the interior layout and add new rooms
- ▶Decorate the exterior with hundreds of new cosmetic modules
- ▶Earn colossal exterior decoration pieces
- ▶Rearrange furnishings and customize the main hangar
Station Directors can also found their own Galactic Alliance — a player-driven faction with a custom name, banner, and territory.
Galactic Alliances
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Max alliances per player | 3 |
| Join method | Visit any owned space station |
| Teleport network | Instant access to alliance-owned systems |
| Competition | Global leaderboards at station cores |
| Ranking factors | Activity, station count, territory size |
Deep-Space Salvage: Space Hulks
Space hulks are massive derelict ships scattered throughout deep space. Players can strip them using the game's physics gravity gun and ship-mounted tractor beams — but these wrecks are structurally unstable.
- ▶Over-harvesting triggers a catastrophic meltdown and explosion
- ▶Scan first to identify highest-value targets
- ▶Salvaged materials go to new deep-space outposts for trading
Corvette-class ships receive a new Tractor Beam utility attachment and the Gravitino Coil to haul recovered material into the cargo hold.
Orbital Base Building
Players can now construct free-floating modular bases anywhere in open space — no planetary surface required.
- ▶Deploy a deep-space base computer to claim a volume of space
- ▶Build around natural asteroid platforms for a fixed anchor point
- ▶Access a large new set of corridor pieces and station decorations via the Space Anomaly
Spacewalking
For the first time, all players can leave their ship in deep space without dying immediately.
- ▶Triggered from the Quick Menu
- ▶Full directional movement in zero gravity, including rolling
- ▶Deep space drains the exosuit's cold protection — plan accordingly
- ▶Allows exploring hulks, salvaging debris, and reaching external points of interest on foot (or float)
New Star System Map
| Before Cosmos | After Cosmos |
|---|---|
| No system-level overview map | Interactive star system map accessible from Quick Menu |
| Planets visible individually from space | Displays all celestial bodies, the space station, and deep-space POIs |
| No navigation markers in space | Mark destinations for navigation assistance |
| No deep-space point discovery | New POIs: asteroid belts, outposts, hulks, debris fields, asteroid platforms |
Changelog Summary
| Category | What Changed |
|---|---|
| Deep Space POIs | Rocky and icy asteroid belts, inhabited and infested outposts, procedural hulk variants, debris fields, asteroid platforms |
| Space Station | Directorship system, interior/exterior customization, additional rooms |
| Alliances | Up to 3 per player, territory leaderboards, teleport access |
| Salvage | Space hulks with tractor beam, meltdown risk, new outpost trade terminals |
| Bases | Orbital base building anywhere in space, new corridor parts |
| Spacewalking | Full EVA movement outside ships, cold protection drain |
| Star map | New Quick Menu interactive map with all system POIs |
| Missions | New deep-space contracts from outpost quartermasters |
| Stars | Perilous long-haul flight path to system's central star |
| PC Tech | DLSS 4.5, XeSS 3, Frame Generation 5x/6x, foveated rendering for PCVR |
| Console | File-handling improvements; load times reduced 6–9% |
| Multiplayer | Improved latency, inventories, settlements, base loading |
| Visuals | Improved terrain tessellation, cloud lighting, particle effects, dynamic lighting on transparent objects |
Source: Simulation Daily — full Cosmos feature breakdown
Our Journey Continues: The 10th Anniversary Expedition
Expedition Twenty-Three, titled Our Journey Continues, launches alongside Cosmos and runs for approximately six weeks.
This is unlike any previous NMS expedition. Each milestone corresponds to a specific No Man's Sky update from the game's 40+ year history — from launch through to Cosmos. Reaching a milestone unlocks developer commentary read by Sean Murray himself, permanently stored in the Catalogue's Collected Knowledge section.
Expedition Rewards:
- ▶Framed commemorative art from major update eras
- ▶Golden edition of the original Rasamama S36 starship
- ▶Starbound v0.27 Multi-Tool
- ▶Astronaut cockpit bobblehead figurine
- ▶Vintage Interceptor ship (as seen in pre-release trailers)
- ▶Vintage Diplodocus companion (as seen in pre-release trailers)
- ▶Decals and exclusive titles
Twitch Drops: Players who watch NMS Drops-enabled streams from September 10–14 can earn expedition rewards without owning the game — rewards wait in inventory and can be claimed at any time.
Source: WccfTech — Hello Games anniversary analysis
Platform Availability
| Platform | Cosmos Available? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PC (Steam) | ✅ Free update | DLSS 4.5, XeSS 3, Frame Gen 5x/6x |
| PlayStation 5 | ✅ Free update | 6–9% load time improvement |
| PlayStation 4 | ✅ Free update | — |
| Xbox Series X|S | ✅ Free update | — |
| Xbox One | ✅ Free update | — |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | ✅ Free update | — |
| Nintendo Switch (original) | ✅ Free update | — |
| Mac | ✅ Free update | — |
No Man's Sky supports full cross-play across all platforms — PC players and console players share the same servers and can visit each other's bases.
Community Reaction
The reception among the long-term NMS community has been enthusiastic, particularly around the Space Station Directorship feature, which players have been requesting since base building was first introduced. Orbital base building — the ability to set up a structure in open space — has been described by multiple community members as "something I didn't know I wanted until I had it."
The 10th anniversary expedition has landed especially well. Revisiting the game's original mechanics through the expedition structure acts as a retrospective, and several players have noted that the developer commentary from Sean Murray adds a genuine sense of closure to the game's turbulent first few years.
The main criticism in early reactions: the meltdown risk on space hulks can feel punishing before players understand the scan-first-then-salvage loop.
GamePeak Summary
Cosmos doesn't add a new biome or a story chapter — it fills in the one part of No Man's Sky that had barely changed since 2016: space itself. Owning a space station, building in orbit, and walking in the void between stars are things the game always implied were possible. Now they are. For anyone who dropped off after an earlier update, this is a reasonable excuse to return. For anyone who has never played, it's a complete game at this point — and Cosmos is a strong window into what a decade of free updates actually looks like.
The Cosmos update is live now, free on all platforms.