As COVID-19 causes more chaos, its impact is being felt across the globe. And the games industry is certainly not immune. And that includes the simulation titan that is Frontier. Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, the new expansion for their premier title, has been delayed on PC till later in the year.
“Our PC plans have only been affected by a small amount, however our plans for the console release will unfortunately see a larger development shift,” Frontier said in an announcement today. “Please do know that these difficult decisions have been made with a focus on making Odyssey as incredible as it can possibly be for all our Commanders regardless of their platform, while also respecting realistic project deadlines for our teams during this difficult global situation.”
When it finally does come out, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will be sold as part of the new DLC pack. And if you want to get your hands on it early, there is a way. You need to have purchased the Deluxe Alpha Expansion, or have your hands on a Lifetime Expansion Pass. These two groups of users will get access to the alpha stage of the expansion a bit before it releases sometime in Spring 2021.
This will feed into the “phased approach to our alpha” as Frontier is calling it. that will further allow the dev team to iterate on teh core gameplay and improve it a bit before the full rollout.
There has already been one delay of the new content this past year, the Oddysey content was already delayed back in May.
Frontier did make sure to keep the fans happy by giving out the Horizons content expansion for free a while back. That expansion included the first major revamp of reputation mechanics, as well as planetary exploration, and so much more. It was a pretty major overhaul of the game’s core content and scope, and it’s been pretty well received over the years.
So while it sucks to see the game get delayed, it’s totally understandable. COVID-19 is not something to take lightly, and many other projects have been forced to be delayed over these issues. And of course, more time to work on the game and perfect it is always welcome. Players, or Commanders as they are referred to in-game, will certainly be thankful.
But when we finally do get to take to the stars, it will be first on PC. The game will then launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Autumn 2021, this will allow Frontier time to patch and adjust things before the console release comes. That should avoid any nasty surprises for the fanbase.
