Good news, everyone! And by “everyone” we mean “a select few of you like the idea of a space simulator that leaves you to fend for yourself in a galaxy intent on highlighting how utterly insignificant you are”. If that sounds like a good time (and I’d argue that it does because I love this game) and you own an Xbox One, then hoorays for everyone, because Elite: Dangerous is heading for Microsoft’s console.
The news comes fresh out of one of Microsoft’s GDC presentations. During said presentation, Xbox main man Phil Spencer made the announcement, which was swiftly followed up by a full statement by David Braben, chairman and founder of developer Frontier Developments. “When asked, I’ve said we’d be mad not to consider bringing Elite: Dangerous to console,” Braben said. “Well, that madness is about to end! Today we’re announcing that we will be bringing the full Elite: Dangerous to Xbox One this year.”
Braben was emphatic that the Xbox One version will in no way derail the continued development and expansion of the PC version. He also made it clear that this is the full Elite: Dangerous experience for Xbox One; nothing is being “dumbed down” for the console market.
Both PC and Xbox One players (and later Mac players too) will contribute towards a shared galaxy state. The actions of players on all platforms will change the narrative, faction powers and galacitc wars. What’s not clear (and there’s currently a debate on the Frontier forums about this) is whether or not PC players and Xbox One players will ever encounter each other in game. Braben described the shared galaxy state as such: “I’m also pleased to announce PC, Mac and Xbox One players will all share the same overarching narrative and galaxy state. That means even more players contributing to the wars, power struggles and Community Goals across the galaxy.”
What is most likely the situation is that Xbox One and PC players will all exist in their own instances of the galaxy – much like PC players who choose between Solo or Open play in the current game. Their actions in their platform-specific instances will contribute to a shared galaxy scaffolding of sorts on which the platform instances play out. As soon as this is clarified by Frontier we’ll update this post.
In the meantime, check out the official GDC 2015 announcement trailer below.
Source: Frontier Developments