News ANNOUNCING ELITE DANGEROUS: HORIZONS

[Vasea Azure]

"It's not a standalone expansion - Elite Dangerous Horizons is the full game and a season of expansions."

So, wait, I'm utterly confused - it's a separate game to the existing Elite? Do my commander transfers to it? I dont get it...

 

[Eera]

Wondering, if people don't buy the expansion, will they still be able to play ED in space ?

 

[Alatar]

Also the loyalty discount is absolutely hilarious in light of new players getting both the base game and the expansion for 40£

 

[Magic Man]

This is great news for all and good to see how FD are planning the future of Elite with new "seasons" to look forward to, each adding to and expanding on the existing game - bit like The Sims franchise.

I'm guessing that each new season will be sold effectively stand alone, giving any new player the full experience. Those of us already in the game will get discounted updates as with this one.

I'm also assuming that as each paid update/expansion can obviously only ever be optional then the mechanics of moving from one part of the game over to an expanded part will have to be handled autonomously, probably will transitions similar to the current FSD jump etc. That's fine and perfectly understandable (was a similar thing with the Jump To Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies back in the day...".

Looking forward to it and the many seasons hopefully to come... Big thanks to all at FD for keeping the dream alive.

 

[cpbtrading]

Any chance we could have a proper announcement and stop fiddling around the edges. This Horizons is an expansion to ED.. Yes or No. If yes, having bought the premium beta a while back, do we get this Horizons free as part of what was promised later i.e. planetary landings, etc.. ??
.
Or do we have to buy this game as separate, in which case.. Why ?
.
If someone could explain, I'd appreciate it......:S

 

[Mechanicum]

New players get the game + the full expansion for the same price I paid for the base game alone, and you expect me to shell out another $60 AFTER I already paid? Really, frontier?

 

[architectbloke]

Hehe, like it

I can't get onto the store at the moment, but are you looking through the Steam store? I only ask because judging by Ziljan's post on #365 the wording on the Steam page says, Beta, whereas the Frontier page says Pre-Order

No I don't have steam, I went straight to the FD store via the game launcher, and not via the horizons advert page.

 

[Ozric]

Hmm. I remember their trailer for ED - it was a little misleading to say the least.
But the new game does sounds good but I wish they would give us a just a quick squint at what it will actually look like.

Unfortunately over the last few years it has become the norm to make game trailers more and more like film trailers. Pretty much every game you see a trailer for (certainly up to close to release) bears no resemblance whatsoever to the game itself

A sad state of affairs, but until we get the Horizons Gameplay trailer, I fear we shall just have to wait.

 

[SonataFanatica]

Wait a second. Michael says Horizons is the full ED game plus the expansion.
So if somebody doesn't have the regular ED yet, he or she can just buy Horizons and have it all, right?
Then why can't ED owners just buy some sort of add-on pack instead of paying the price for "the regular game plus expansion"...?

 

[Jukelo]

Not too thrilled about having to pay £30 on top of the £40 I already paid on release when new players can get both the base game and Horizons for a total of £40.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Yes i would like this confirmed either way too, but i suspect the answer will be no, hence the £10 discount for beta players.
A long thread, moving so fast, so i have not read every post, so do we know when the Beta Horizons starts, what does Holiday 2015 mean, which holiday.
How long will beta last before release, these things i need to know before buying either.
And yes, too expensive for me and my pension. I will still buy though, i have been waiting a long time for this, and i am excited by it, but just have questions waiting to be answered first.
I would have hoped for around the £20 mark for this, and £130 for the pass is way above my budget.

Frontier have said in the past that all Premium Beta and Alpha backers will get early access to all future Elite: Dangerous updates.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Michael!! Please tell me, that walking on your ship/stations will be coming with this expansion, then you have my money!!

Edit: Can I ask how long will the beta pre-order be avaible? Thank you! =)

No walking around in this season - that's coming much later.

Michael

 

[Steve50]

Wondering, if people don't buy the expansion, will they still be able to play ED in space ?

..of course they will.

 

[Magic Man]

Also the loyalty discount is absolutely hilarious in light of new players getting both the base game and the expansion for 40£

Not really. The "original" base game will be over a year old at that point. Most expansions these days, certainly full price (effectively new games) come with the base, they have to.

 

[architectbloke]

Any chance we could have a proper announcement and stop fiddling around the edges. This Horizons is an expansion to ED.. Yes or No. If yes, having bought the premium beta a while back, do we get this Horizons free as part of what was promised later i.e. planetary landings, etc.. ??
.
Or do we have to buy this game as separate, in which case.. Why ?
.
If someone could explain, I'd appreciate it......:S

Yes..no...maybe? Yes its an expansion, but you don't have to have it.

 

[Ozric]

No I don't have steam, I went straight to the FD store via the game launcher, and not via the horizons advert page.

In that case I shall have to say that I do not know then, and judging by the fact I cannot access the store page still I will have to wait until I get home from work to see.

 

[Aigaion]

Braben's race to make money just got real. I am really waiting for the $150+ expansion to walk through your sip.

This game is getting nuts.

 

[Supi]

Wait a second. Michael says Horizons is the full ED game plus the expansion.
So if somebody doesn't have the regular ED yet, he or she can just buy Horizons and have it all, right?
Then why can't ED owners just buy some sort of add-on pack instead of paying the price for "the regular game plus expansion"...?

Couldn't have put it better.

 

[Janichsan]

People pay £40 and after get a years worth of content. For the following year they have to pay more to get more. What is hard or unfair about that?

Or they can just stick with the stuff they already paid for.

Setting aside that buyers of the base game have not yet got all the content they paid for (like 30 flyable ships) and ignoring the question if the additions in the patches so far really make a "year's worth of content", the question was rather what this means for smaller content additions, like new ships, new mission types, new equipment, that all so far were part of the recent "season content updates".

But it seems as if these concerns have already been addressed in MB's comment.

 

[Ozric]

Also the loyalty discount is absolutely hilarious in light of new players getting both the base game and the expansion for 40£

Not too thrilled about having to pay £30 on top of the £40 I already paid on release when new players can get both the base game and Horizons for a total of £40.

I don't believe they can. I think you are misconstruing Michael's answer, but only he can clarify that.