Well, what can I say? Frontier is clearly putting Elite out to pasture. We're not quite at an "Old Yeller' moment yet, but we're getting there bit by bit. That is the first roadmap I've ever come across that had me fall out of my seat with laughter. For a moment I thought it was April Fools Day. But it's not. Which is kinda sad.
On the one hand, the roadmap confirms that the Elite servers are not going to be shut off for some time. That is good news. On the other hand, I get the distinct impression that the Elite we have now is all the Elite we are going to get. With the exception of the cut & paste mentions of "stability" and "optimization", the only new content can be counted on the fingers of one hand:
- A new mission variant
- Narrative content (including "major" narrative content)
- A "key feature" overhaul
So...two new gameplay elements and some narrative content. Wow. In other words, Frontier is going to deliver over the course of a year what other devs would consider to be a minor DLC. For a putative live service game.
Eh. The writing's been on the wall for some time. It is what it is. Braben's "baby" has been put up for adoption. Oh well. I just hope somewhere in those stability and optimizations patches Elite's anti-anti-aliasing is addressed. But seeing how this so-called roadmap reeks of busy work, I doubt it. If not in maintenance mode by another name, Elite certainly is now in zombie mode: it's dead but still manages to shamble along for a little longer.
BTW: it is worth keeping in mind that console commanders were thrown to the curb so that FDev could focus on PC development. And this is now what FDev's new PC-focused development looks like. What else needs to be said?