App Store Indie Games Week opens with Sifu, and No Man's Sky reaches iPhone and iPad on 28 OctoberApp Store Indie Games Week opens with Sifu, and No Man's Sky reaches iPhone and iPad on 28 October

Apple started App Store Indie Games Week on 12 October, featuring seven independent games for iPhone and iPad, including pre-orders for No Man's Sky.

Apple's Newsroom post says the App Store will run daily features and curated collections through the week. Six of the games are available now, and No Man's Sky follows on 28 October. Carson Oliver, Apple's head of App Store Worldwide, said in the post that "the App Store gives bold ideas a global stage". Apple gave no end date for the week and no prices. The prices below are from the US App Store listings, and MacStories reports the same figures.

Which games are in Indie Games Week?

Apple singles out Sifu, a third-person kung fu brawler, as rebuilt for touch, with a reworked camera and full controller support. The Yes, Your Grace 2 listing shows two unlock prices, $4.99 and $6.99, without saying what separates them.

What does No Man's Sky on iPhone include?

Hello Games' Sean Murray wrote on the studio's site that "This is not No Man's Sky Lite." He says it carries all of the game's more than forty major updates, including Voyagers from last year and Cosmos, released in September. His post and the App Store listing give the details:

• Devices: Murray says iPhone 11 and later, and the third-generation iPad Air and later. The listing asks for iOS 26 and an A12 Bionic chip, which also takes in the iPhone XS and XR.
• Missing: multiplayer. Planetary Settlements work only on iPhone 15 Pro and later, Murray says.
• Controls: new touch controls, plus game controllers, casting to a TV, and mouse and keyboard on iPad.
• Size: under 4GB, according to Murray. The listing shows 3.8GB.
• Price: free to try, then a one-time Full Game Unlock of $19.99.

AppleInsider notes that the game reached the Mac only in June 2023, a year after Apple used it at WWDC 2022 to show off Metal 3 and MetalFX upscaling.

Where do the reports disagree?

On settlements and size. The Verge and AppleInsider say settlements are missing outright and put the download at about 5GB. Murray's post says settlements run on the newer iPhones and the game is under 4GB, and we follow the developer. MacStories adds that cross-save and cross-play are absent at launch, which Murray's post does not mention. The US App Store listing also shows the release as expected on 29 October, a day later than Apple and Hello Games say. That may be a time zone effect, but neither company has explained it.

Our take

Indie Games Week is merchandising, not a policy change: no new fee, rule or programme, just a week of editorial placement. The selection still says something: every game here is bought once, at $4.99 to $19.99, with no subscription. Apple's own games push has run mostly through its subscription, and we reported this month that Apple Arcade added Terraria+ and four more games for October. This week is the other model, and Apple is putting its front page behind it.

Four of the seven are free to try with a paid unlock, No Man's Sky among them. That is the nearest thing the App Store has to a demo, and it answers the oldest objection to paying $19.99 for a phone game: whether it runs well on your phone. For No Man's Sky the question is real, because its device list reaches back to the iPhone 11.

APPDOOK's reading is that No Man's Sky is the one worth watching. A full console game in under 4GB on an iPhone 11 is a claim about battery and heat that only players can test, and Murray says Hello Games will support iOS according to how many people play. His Switch precedent is encouraging: the missing features there led eventually to an expanded Switch 2 version. For now it suits someone with a recent iPhone or iPad who wants a long solo game. Anyone hoping to join friends on a console or PC should wait for multiplayer.