What you need to know
- No Man's Sky is coming to iPad later this year.
- Apple slipped the announcement into its macOS Ventura press release this week.
- It will likely be exclusive to Apple silicon iPads.
Apple quietly announced that No Man's Sky from Hello Games is coming to iPad later this year, in what probably should have been a bigger announcement.
Tucked away in the release of macOS Ventura, Apple hailed the new immersive gaming experiences that were coming to Apple silicon, boasting Triple-A titles that will run "with ease on Apple silicon including EA's Grid Legends, in part thanks to big upgrades to Metal 3:
Metal 3, the latest version of the software that powers the gaming experience across Apple platforms, introduces new features that take the gaming experience on Mac to new heights and unleash the full potential of Apple silicon for years to come. MetalFX Upscaling enables developers to quickly render complex scenes by using less compute-intensive frames, and then apply resolution scaling and temporal anti-aliasing. The result is accelerated performance that provides gamers with a more responsive feel and graphics that look stunning. Game developers also benefit from a new Fast Resource Loading API that minimizes wait time by providing a more direct path from storage to the GPU, so games can easily access high-quality textures and geometry needed to create expansive worlds for realistic and immersive gameplay.
Apple also hailed No Man's Sky from Hello Games, and revealed that the game isn't just coming to Mac, but also Apple's best iPads as well later this year:
And since Apple silicon also powers iPad, game developers can bring their AAA games to even more users, like No Man's Sky from Hello Games, which is coming to both Mac and iPad later this year.
You'll need an Apple silicon iPad to play it on release, currently either the M1 iPad Pro (2021) or iPad Air.
The 2021 iPad Pro features much-improved performance, faster 5G radios, a creative new front-facing camera, and on the larger 12.9-inch model, a seriously great display. It's still the best tablet ever, but costs more than ever.
