No Man's Sky Cosmos Update 7.0 Is Live and Free on PS5, Xbox, Switch 2 and PC
Hello Games pushed No Man's Sky update 7.0 live on 9 September, and it is a free download on every platform the game already runs on. The No Man's Sky Cosmos update is aimed almost entirely at the space between planets, which has been the thinnest layer of the game since it launched in 2016.
Space now has things in it. Asteroid belts, drifting hulks you can cut apart for salvage, infested outposts that need clearing, and anomalies that show on a new solar system map before you warp in. Founder Sean Murray calls it the biggest overhaul to space the game has seen in ten years.
What the No Man's Sky Cosmos update changes
The headline system is station directorship. Prove yourself to a station's local authority and you take it over as director, which lets you restyle the central lobby, add ancillary rooms off the main hangar and redecorate the exterior. Interiors are built with the same base parts you already use planetside.
Directors can also found an alliance and recruit other players into it. You can belong to up to three alliances at once, move between alliance systems through teleporters, and see the most active groups ranked on leaderboards at the station core. Ranking is driven by member activity, not by anything you buy.
- Free-floating modular bases you can deploy anywhere in open space
- Spacewalking straight out of your ship from the Quick Menu, with six degrees of freedom including roll
- Shipbreaking runs on derelict hulks, handled with physics rather than a menu
- Missions that take you into the centre of a star system, toward the sun itself
- A solar system scanner that flags points of interest before you commit to a warp
Spacewalking drains your cold protection while you are outside, unless you are near something hot like a star. It works as a soft timer on how long you can float around before you need to get back in the ship.
Which platforms get update 7.0
All of them. Cosmos is out on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, Steam and Mac on PC, and both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It is also live in the Xbox Game Pass version, so subscribers get it without a separate purchase — worth reading next to September's Game Pass wave, which has its own additions and removals this month.
There is no paid component and no separate expansion to buy. Existing owners on any platform pick it up as a normal patch. VR players get fixes too: PSVR Move controller bindings were corrected, and PCVR headsets with eye tracking now support foveated rendering.
Expedition Twenty-Three: Our Journey Continues
The update ships with Expedition Twenty-Three, "Our Journey Continues," marking ten years since launch. It runs for roughly six weeks and is built as a retrospective, revisiting earlier updates with callbacks in the gameplay and developer commentary along the route. The rewards are tied to the anniversary rather than to the new space systems.
Six weeks is longer than a typical expedition window, so there is no need to start it the day the patch lands.
Performance and file size changes
Hello Games spent part of this patch on the engine rather than on features. Mesh data files are around 13% smaller, and reworked file handling cuts console load times by 6 to 9%. On Xbox, bindless texture support lowers CPU usage. Deferred node unloading and asynchronous base updates are both aimed at framerate stability, which matters most on the weakest hardware on that platform list — the original Switch and Xbox One.
Two specific bugs are called out in the notes: Corvettes failing to land properly at space stations and the Anomaly, and motion blur kicking in while the game was paused.
What else is worth playing this week
The survival crowd has had a busy few days. Valheim's 1.0 console launch arrived on PS5 and Switch 2 with a price rise attached, and Subnautica 2's update 1.2 added proximity voice chat on PC and Xbox. If you are playing on a phone and streaming instead, our guide to connecting a PS5 controller to Android covers pairing and input lag.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the No Man's Sky Cosmos update free?
Yes. Update 7.0 is a free download for anyone who already owns No Man's Sky, on every platform. There is no paid expansion or season pass attached to it, and the Xbox Game Pass version gets it as part of the subscription.
Is No Man's Sky Cosmos on Switch 2?
Yes. Cosmos is available on Nintendo Switch 2 as well as the original Switch. It is the same 7.0 update that landed on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Steam and Mac on 9 September 2026.
How long does the Our Journey Continues expedition run?
Expedition Twenty-Three, Our Journey Continues, runs for roughly six weeks from the launch of the Cosmos update. It celebrates ten years of No Man's Sky and revisits earlier updates with in-game callbacks and developer commentary, so there is time to finish it without rushing.
How do you become a space station director in No Man's Sky?
You prove yourself to a station's local authority, after which you take over as director. That lets you restyle the station's central lobby, add extra rooms off the main hangar and change the exterior, using the same base building parts you already use on planets.
Does the Cosmos update improve performance on console?
Hello Games says reworked file handling cuts console load times by 6 to 9%, and mesh data files are about 13% smaller. Xbox gains bindless texture support to lower CPU usage, and deferred node unloading plus asynchronous base updates target framerate stability.
