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Elite: Dangerous fully funded

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Frontier Developments' PC space epic hits funding target on Kickstarter with just days remaining; stretch goals include Mac version, ten additional playable ships.

Elite: Dangerous is on track to take flight. Frontier Developments' space sim exceeded its £1.25 million (about $2 million) Kickstarter funding target yesterday, amassing £1.31 million ($2.13 million) from more than 22,000 backers at press time. The fund ends tomorrow, January 4, at 7 p.m. EST.

The milestone was reached on Frontier Developments founder David Braben's 49th birthday.

Stretch goals for Elite: Dangerous were recently announced, the first of which is a Mac version. If the funding hits £1.4 million ($2.27 million), a Mac iteration will be released within three months of the initial Windows launch. Additionally, if Elite: Dangerous amasses £1.5 million ($2.44 million), an additional ten playable ships (on top of the 15 existing) will be added to the game.

Elite: Dangerous is aiming to be an "amazing space epic" that boasts "stunning visuals" and "incredible gameplay." The game is currently scheduled to arrive only on PC during March 2014.

The game features multiplayer, a reputation-based system that affects the gameworld, a trading market, combat missions, and customizable ships. Players will begin their journeys with a number of credits, which can be used for a variety of purposes.

The original Elite launched in 1984, with two bona fide sequels, Frontier: Elite and Frontier: First Encounters, arriving in 1993 and 1995, respectively. Braben and Frontier Developments most recently developed Kinectimals, Kinect Disney Land, and Lost Winds.

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

47 comments
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skoypidia
skoypidia like.author.displayName 1 Like

Hope Braben pulls it off. I loved wing commander but there is something in the old fashioned approach to Elite. I love the art. For the people that say there is no story, I remember, back in the 80s when I was low Deadly level, I tried to land on a station and the sun had a supernova. Then, one day, I saw a Thargoid. Tried to shoot it down with everything I had but wasn't ready for what IT had. Point is, participating in an overbloated space opera does not mean memorable events. How many times have you saved the world guys? It gets sort of meh doesn't it? Elite events are as real as it gets, because they are few and rare.

isahunt
isahunt

Big fan of X-series and Privateer/Freelancer, but why would I want a game where dozens of star systems of space stations are named after some rich douchebag...

 

Kind of ruins the immersion, when you play the game and you are constantly reminded of it - "Now docking at John Thomas station" - doesn't it.

damodar_thade
damodar_thade

Anyone for  Freelancer 2 =)

Daisak
Daisak like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @damodar_thade 

Star Citizen, that's as close as anyone's going to get to freelancer 2, and it's by the same guy that made it, Chris Roberts.

damodar_thade
damodar_thade

 @Daisak

 I saw the teaser it looks good hope he does as well with SC as he did with freelancer.

luluanddan101
luluanddan101

ok, I don't get that.

According to the article you get 10 extra ships if they amount to 1.5 mil, 100,000 GBP above the previous amount.

I'm a 3D artist in the games industry, give me the 100,000 and I'll model 100 ships for you. It doesn't cost that amount to make another 10 ships no matter how detailed they are.

keyb0red
keyb0red like.author.displayName 1 Like

I'm still amazed how the guy could fit the original Elite universe on a floppy disk (remember those?)

shantd
shantd

Time...to...explode

thedre666
thedre666

Elite. Best game ever. After nearly 30 years nothing comes close. All hail the Braben! Hail!

in case no one has found it, you can get Elite on the iphone too. Called Unknown 3D Space Trader.

Hail the great man!

Microsteve
Microsteve

 @thedre666 I can't see it on the app store

thedre666
thedre666

I just checked the store and I can't find it now either. I got it in November. Was developed by a guy called Mike Janney. When I search for him nowm, I get a techno music studio.

Must have been pulled. Bugger.  

tgwolf
tgwolf

COLD DITCH the Mac and pour the funding and man-hours into giving us a solid product in the legacy of Freelancer AND MORE THAN TEN (???????????!!!!!!!!) ships to choose from...Honestly, how many idiots are born each day that the same old sims can get pushed year in year out??

Hayasmez
Hayasmez

Good job funding someone who can't pitch a game properly, if he was showing this to any publisher he would have been rejected outright even if it was the next big trend in gaming . Nostalgia wins again it seems.

sOhChAi
sOhChAi

 @Hayasmez I would really like to see how you pitch yours, if you ever have one. Do you even know how many great games with huge potential fell short because of game publishers with their stupid requirements and interference? They think they funded the game, so the game have to be how they wanted, but those who make the call don't even play any games at all. Kick starter is a good channel for games to be 'From Gamers, to Gamers', without the bloody publisher stands right in the middle.

sethfrost
sethfrost

2 Million US Dollars sounds a lot at first, but you can burn through this money in a couple months, depending on the size of your team. 

 

I never participated in the "pay first - play later" ... or HOPE to play something, that also was worth your money.

OmegaRecon
OmegaRecon

I'm glad to see space sims return, from the best developers of the originals as well!

 

Star Citizen will be a great game for single/multiplayer, and somewhat MMO, while Elite will be fantastic for exploration due to procedural generation. Definitely keeping my eyes on both games!

widdowson91
widdowson91

Can't wait to play this. The original Elite is still one of the best games ever made.

M-S-M-S
M-S-M-S

I wished there was a game similar to elite/star citizen but in the Cowboy Bebop universe...

rogerpenna
rogerpenna

the most important feature that we will have in Elite Dangerous that isnt available at Star Citizen is the existance of a massive galaxy (we are talking millions of stars with dozens of planets each) and seamless space/planetary transitions.

 

If Freelancer/Privateer are any clues, expect unrealistically small planets in Star Citizen (we are talking of planets less than 50km in diameter and ships flying towards planets at speeds of 100 mph)

placksheep
placksheep

 @rogerpenna I will buy both games. It's been waay too long since I played a good space sim, and I freaking love them.

rogerpenna
rogerpenna

 @placksheep Me too. I am telling the differences between them, I am absolutely not bashing Star Citizen, which seems awesome!

Daisak
Daisak

 @rogerpenna 

Elite is going to be procedurally generated, similar to FTL, which means, to me at least, it will lack storyline, depth and narrative. Though I would still pick it up and will most definitely enjoy it, but Star Citizen is going for storyline, and carefully crafted missions, which is more to my kind of space sim.

rogerpenna
rogerpenna like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Daisak I am sorry, but this is complete nonsense. You can have a deep storyline, depth and narrative spanning lets say the same number of star systems and planets as Star Citizen. AND have all the other million star systems just for fun and exploration and trade and such. Who said you cant have a galaxy wide procedural generation but at the same time manually craft x number of planets, and y number of missions?

 

Example: even though the huge continent of Tamriel was procedurally generated in Daggerfall, it still followed a basic handcrafted pattern (a map of where should be the major cities, mountain chains, and general map of the world). Also, even though most missions were procedurally generated in Daggerfall, as well as dungeons, you still had plenty of MANUALLY designed missions AND dungeons that were the same each time you played the game.

Daisak
Daisak

 @rogerpenna 

Except that's not the case of Elite Dangerous, I've seen the kickstarter and the emphasis was on the multiplayer and consistent galaxy. They did say there was going to be offline single player, but nowhere did they say that there will be a single player campaign with a plot to follow, as well as NPC's and wingmen with their own personalities.  Unless they announce otherwise, i.e a full fledged single player campaign, then from the information we have, ED is going to have a sandbox single player.

Daisak
Daisak

Backed Star Citizen, would have backed this but I'm short on cash.

 

Anyway, I'm just glad that the Space Sim is picking up again, now all we need is Freespace 3 (I know, THQ owns Volition, so not happening anytime soon).

Avenger1324
Avenger1324

I still question why someone who has been in the industry this long, has a company of 200+ people and who has supposedly been working on "a new Elite game" for the past 10 years, requires this kind of crowd sourced funding.

 

Perhaps because Kickstarter simply hands over the money and considers it "job done", whereas a publisher would have a vested interest in ensuring the game gets completed and released...

rogerpenna
rogerpenna

 @Avenger1324 Some game companies hire temporary employers for a game production cycle. As the game is finished, their contracts are also finished. Frontier´s 200 employees were from the last game. Most employees were dismissed after that game finished. An Elite game is certainly a very different kind of game than their last games and will need different employees with different kind of expertise.

Daisak
Daisak

 @Avenger1324 

 

Developers never fund their own games, they always seek publishers, EA, 2K or Activision.

 

Space Sims fell out of favor with publishers, with the last great Space Sim being Freespace 2. Publishers cater to trends, the trend now is Call of Duty. Which is why indie devs would go to kickstarter.

Aydenuille
Aydenuille like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Daisak  @Avenger1324 Agree to the last bit, but there are developers (not many) who fund their own games. Here in Belgium, we've got Larian. You know, from the Divinity games. They do it, and I cheer for that.

 

I realise that's not always the case, though, unfortunately...

n00dles4
n00dles4 like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Avenger1324 Perhaps you've not noticed that many publishers are killing creativity in favour of churning out mindless drivel for the masses.

 

Perhaps you're unaware that GameTek fucked Braben with the rushed release of "Frontier: First Encounters", and more recently "The Outsider" was dumped after six years in development, despite being near completion none of these wonderfully helpful publishers wanted to give it the final push.

 

He's doing what he needs to do in order to get this game made, without interference from any AAA obsessed, overbearing publisher.  This way he gets to make the game he wants, on his terms.

 

Fair play to him.

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