Quite the surprise considering the game’s procedural nature and being quite demanding. On the game’s official blog, No Man’s Sky creator Sean Murray talked about the Switch port, and how it appeared to be near-impossible to bring the game to Nintendo’s platform on various occasions. “For the last couple of years, a couple of members of our small team have been secretly working on the Nintendo Switch version of No Man’s Sky”, Murray writes. “It has been a real moonshot. No Man’s Sky is built around procedural generation, which means the console generates everything you see. This makes it so much harder to bring our game to something like the Switch. There have been so many times where we’ve gone home one day convinced it was impossible, only to have someone stride in the next day with a unique technical solution. Honestly, I think this team never seems happier than when they are trying to do near-impossible things.”
According to the founder of Hello Games, being able to travel from planet to planet on the Switch is quite astonishing and he often has to remind himself that this game is running pretty great on the platform. “From UI to controllers to gameplay, we’re taking the time to make this feel completely at home on the device, both on the big screen, but importantly as a portable version of No Man’s Sky”, he explained. “Every time I pick the Switch up and seamlessly jump from planet to planet, from star system to star system, I have to pinch myself that I am playing on the Nintendo Switch and that I can take it with me wherever I go.” More information about the Switch version of No Man’s Sky will be shared closer to release this Summer. For now, stay tuned.