A free Switch 2 Edition upgrade for No Man’s Sky is available

No Man’s Sky is the latest game to receive a Switch 2 Edition upgrade.

As posted on the Hello Games YouTube channel, the Switch 2 Edition upgrade is free to existing owners of the Switch game.

Whereas most Switch 2 Edition upgrades for existing Switch games are available at a cost, the Switch 2 Edition of No Man’s Sky is a free upgrade for players who already own the Switch edition.

“It’s always so exciting to get our hands on a new platform and the Switch 2 Edition for No Man’s Sky is a huge leap forward,” Hello Games said in a statement.

“We’re rendering significantly more than before at a much higher resolution and at an increased frame rate. We’ve upped texture density across the board. Cross-save, cross-play, gyro controls, touch screen and multiplayer are all there from day one, along with 9 years of updates.

“And with the accompanying Beacon update, available today across all platforms, we’re overhauling settlements and adding those to Switch 2 too, something that just wasn’t possible before.

At the time of writing, the Switch version of No Man’s Sky is currently on sale in some regions, including New Zealand where it currently costs $35.98 instead of $89.95.

In the UK, the game is currently on sale for £15.99 instead of its usual £39.99. This deal ends on June 16, meaning assuming the free update offer will apply for a while, in the UK the Switch 2 Edition of the game can be acquired for £15.99 by buying the Switch version and claiming the free upgrade.

No Man’s Sky has been considered one of the biggest turnarounds in video games, given the reception to the game when it was released.

When it initially launched in 2016, reception was mixed as many of the features players were expecting weren’t present on day one.

Since then, developer Hello Games has been continually releasing free content updates, to the extent that the game as it stands in 2025 is vastly superior to what was available in 2016.