Sean Murray posted a letter on Steam today, August 10th, 2026, marking the No Man’s Sky 10th anniversary. He gets emotional about the journey, shares some staggering stats, and drops a name I’ve been waiting to hear: COSMOS.
I still remember that first day in 2016. I woke up on a radioactive hellscape with no idea what I was doing, and honestly, I loved it. The game was thin back then, but the promise was so huge. Reading Sean’s letter now, ten years later, I feel that same spark—except this time, the game has actually delivered on almost everything it once promised and then some. The fact that they’re still not done, that they’re teasing a whole new update called COSMOS, makes me genuinely excited. This isn’t just a nostalgia trip; it’s a signal that No Man’s Sky’s best days might still be ahead.
What Sean Murray Said
Sean’s letter is a mix of reflection and forward-looking tease. He admits he feels “surprisingly emotional” about the anniversary, which hits hard when you consider the rollercoaster this game has been on. He talks about the millions of players who’ve made the universe their home, built communities, and created wild custom ships. The numbers he throws out are mind-boggling: 40 major updates, all free, across a decade. Support for a dizzying list of platforms—Switch, Xbox, VR, PSVR, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, and more. Tens of millions of players, hundreds of millions of hours, and still less than 1% of the planets explored. That last stat always gets me. The universe is so absurdly vast that we’ve barely scratched the surface.
But the part that made me sit up straight was the tease. Sean says the team is “busy cooking on our next game Light No Fire, and big things for the future of No Man’s Sky, with the tease of our upcoming update titled ‘COSMOS’.” That’s it. No details, no date, just a name and a promise that “more will follow.” He ends with “Our journey continues,” and honestly, after ten years, I believe him.
In the background we are busy cooking on our next game Light No Fire, and big things for the future of No Man’s Sky, with the tease of our upcoming update titled “COSMOS”. More will follow!
What the COSMOS Tease Means for Players
This letter lands at a fascinating moment. No Man’s Sky has already pulled off one of the greatest redemption arcs in gaming history, and it’s still going. The fact that Hello Games is working on Light No Fire while continuing to pour resources into No Man’s Sky tells me they’re not treating this as a legacy product. COSMOS could be anything—a universe reset, a new narrative layer, deeper space exploration mechanics, or something I can’t even guess. The name alone suggests a shift in scale or perspective, maybe something that ties the whole universe together in a new way.
What I’m watching for is whether COSMOS builds on the existing sandbox or fundamentally changes how we interact with the universe. After 40 updates, the game is dense with systems. A new update with a name like that could be the kind of capstone that makes everything feel cohesive. Or it could be another radical reinvention, the way Next or Origins were. Either way, I’m here for it. The fact that less than 1% of planets have been explored means there’s still an almost infinite frontier waiting, and COSMOS might be the key to making that frontier feel even more alive.
Ten years in, No Man’s Sky is still a game I return to whenever a big update drops, and I suspect COSMOS will pull me back in hard. Sean’s letter doesn’t give us a timeline, but the mere confirmation that it’s coming is enough to keep the universe spinning in my head.
