No Man's Sky is now cross-saved on 12 platforms, and Mass Effect's Normandy returns as a limited time rewar

No Man's Sky, the eight-year old interplanetary exploration game, has announced a feature that literally took years to develop: cross-save across its many platforms.

It's not an overstatement. Hello Games is credited with double the number of stars by stating that their cross-save feature will work on "PC, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One, Series X/S and Game Pass, GOG and Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck and PlayStation VR 1 & PCVR."

A collaboration that took place years ago will also return. The famous SSV Normandy SR1, which appeared in Mass Effect, will be available as a spaceship for players to collect on Mass Effect fan holiday N7 Day yesterday. You will be able to complete an adapted and revised version 2021's Beachhead Expedition to get a Normandy in your collection as a midsize Frigate. The event will run until November 21.

"Adding the ability for users to transfer their saves from one platform to another via a server will be especially difficult for No Man's Sky. The work involved will increase with each supported platform and the length of time that people have been playing. Hello Games said in a press statement that both numbers were large for their small team.

The amount of work required to make cross-save functions has increased over the years, as more platforms have been added and players have built ever more detailed and intricate base designs, with ever more widgets and mech walkers for players to stomp about in.

"We have also had players who played at launch eight years ago and suddenly load up their save on a platform which didn't exist then!" said Hello Games.

Due to the size of the task, the cross save feature will initially be available only to a small number of players. "We're now ready to roll out cross save to a limited number of players. From today, all No Man's Sky players can link their different accounts together at https://cloud.nomanssky.com/cross-save. A subset will be able to select their saves on multiple devices from the in-game saving screen. In the next few weeks, all players will be invited.

No Man's Sky has had a busy year. The 5.0 Worlds update, which included a sweeping tech update across the game, was released. The addition of fishing made it a true videogame. Halloween brought a little cosmic horror and the addition of fishing.