No Man's Sky Creator's Cryptic Tweets Could Hint at New Update Coming

No Man’s Sky creator Sean Murray has shared a series of emojis that have piqued the curiosity of the game’s fan base, with some believing that a new expansion update may be on the way. Free updates to No Man’s Sky have lifted it from an unpopular, bare-bones launch in 2016 to one of the most complex and respected survival games on the market, and some fans expect to see another big content update soon.

Since its launch, there have been 31 named content expansions for No Man’s Sky, all of which have been offered to players at no additional cost. Updates through the first half of 2025 alone have added exploration of deep oceans, fossil trading, town squadron defenses, citizen dilemmas, and the addition of billions of new stars and planets, to name just a few features.

No Man’s Sky Creator Could Be Hinting at the Next Expansion

Murray’s Twitter profile has been relatively dormant during August, posting a message about the game’s ninth anniversary on August 9, promoting its Youtooz-brand plush toys, and sharing a few screen captures and a piece of fan art. But a wordless post from August 23 includes just an emoji of a waving hand, while a follow-up post the next day adds three more hands. While a simple explanation would be that Hello Games is No Man’s Sky‘s developer and publisher, and a waving hand is commonly associated with saying “hello,” Murray has used similar tactics in the past to garner attention before a big reveal. Many fans suspect that the company’s managing director may be hinting at something new on the horizon.

One popular theory is that Murray is foreshadowing the upcoming reveal of the game’s next content update. There were three smaller No Man’s Sky updates in July, and none so far for August. The last major content update for No Man’s Sky was Beacon, which was released in early June. That expansion introduced settlements for the Autophage, one of the game’s sentient robotic races, and added a lot of base-building features, including upgradeable buildings and the ability to oversee multiple towns at once. Murray made a similar tweet before the release of Beacon, sharing an emoji of bacon.

There is also a contingency of fans who are expecting a new reveal of the massive open-world game Light No Fire. Murray initially revealed Light No Fire more than a year and a half ago at The Game Awards 2023, showing it to be an exploration game set in a singular massive world as opposed to No Man’s Sky‘s 18.4 quintillion-plus procedurally generated planets. Despite having entered development at least six years ago, there has been almost nothing revealed about Light No Fire since its original trailer was released. Considering that No Man’s Sky spent just four years in development before its launch, it’s possible fans could see more of Hello Games’ next big entry soon.