Console Update

[Kakamage]

You know people are still struggling to run Odyssey with a 3070? Right?

No, I didn't. I haven't purchased Odyssey because what it offers is not worth $40.

What I have read shows wildly varying reports on how Odyssey runs, so who's telling the truth? There's an infinite amount of hardware combinations out there. My 3080 Ti FE dropped into my 7-year old PC with an i5-4690K has horrific stuttering and garbage FPS. Does that mean Horizons is trash? No, it means my hardware combination is garbo.

So your generic statement means literally nothing because there's no background or basis about the other supporting hardware to imply that even 3070s aren't enough.

 

[S3NS3R]

Wow! you release this news on the forum? Why was it not annouced in the new studio quality streaming production as a "Segment" where Console players could at least see the pain on your face as you destroyed there hopes.

we also look forward to sharing our new streaming format when the series returns as a weekly show. Changes will include new segments, year-round Twitch Drop campaigns and studio-quality production once we move back into the office.

 

[CorvenDallas]

Could you put at least the (in)famous Tionisla ship graveyard with ships and some consoles floating around?

Or ships with MAC and console names?

 

[biohazard15]

Ouch.

Not surprised though, given the state of Odyssey (even in a current state it's unlikely to pass console QA).

 

[Lori Jameson]

Definitely agree with you mate. I hope there is a future for console players, beyond still being supported iykwim

Silver linings though, plenty of stuffs for you. Real doom for once, eh?

 

[Jpotter]

I think the biggest mistake is somewhere along the lines FDev made an assumption that today's gamers are ok with sub-30 FPS at times. When Odyssey was released I felt FDev was caught off-guard by the blowback and demand from the community for the same performance as Horizons but still enhance the game with new content/game beautification/Odyssey/etc. I think given the blowback they re-upped the performance benchmark which was when console support was initially delayed for Odyssey. FDev hoped that the optimizations they'd make on PC would port to console and eventually they could release it. But you can't have both on hardware that is out of date - eventually you either need to drop the performance benchmark or not enhance the game further.

I'm guessing they hit a wall with the consoles and 30fps was out the window and that meant so was the console. But this doesn't explain lack of future console support...... and of course the official reasoning as to why all consoles are really being dropped would be great.... otherwise everyone will speculate as I did for what fits their own narrative and view of the situation.

 

[Red Rocket]

I must say that I am not surprised.
From the poor performance so far on PC, I didn't know how in the world they could get it to work on the older gen consoles.

After getting Odyssey and playing only in VR, I still find the VR performance far better in Horizons.
Now that they dropped Console support I am afraid the PC optimization will be less important.

I am AFRAID Fdev will say we have done enough let's move on.

 

[Draven Darken]

I own both the console and PC versions, and I’m entirely fine with this decision. I’ve enjoyed playing ED while relaxing on my couch at times, for a more casual experience, and there’s nothing stopping me from continuing to do so. When I want the walking around stuff, I have my PC for that. And ED on my PS4 already taxes the system pretty heavily with some slow FPS at times, so it was hard for me to imagine that a port of Odyssey wouldn’t make that worse and result in an experience I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy anyway.

I do feel for people who can only play on console … after all, when I started with ED I only had a Mac, and we all know what happened with that platform. But the existing console game isn’t lessened by this decision IMO ... console players still have an entire galaxy to explore, just like they did yesterday. I hope they will continue to enjoy it.

 

[Aeneas]

Greetings Commanders,

Elite Dangerous is a game close to my heart.

It’s no secret that Odyssey’s launch was less than ideal, including the need to split the PC/console player base to focus on a PC-only launch. Since Odyssey’s release in May 2021, we have worked tirelessly to improve the Odyssey experience on PC, and whilst we have made great progress there is still more to be done. We have been supporting the pre-Odyssey and post-Odyssey codebases since.

Over the last several months, we have been wrestling with the best way to move forward, and it is with a heavy heart we have decided to cancel all console development. We need to be able to move forward with the story of the game, and in order for us to do this we need to focus on a single codebase. Elite Dangerous will continue on console as it is now together with critical updates, but we will focus on new content updates on PC on the post-Odyssey codebase.

We appreciate this news is not what our console community were hoping for. This was not an easy decision to make, but it was made with the long-term future of Elite Dangerous in mind.

This is a mistake. I had transferd my account because FD said, that there will be a Odyssey version. My only system is the PS NOW.

i am sad und angry and hope you are joking on this.

 

[DrCribbens]

What more developers should do to be honest, instead of spreading their resources too thin and deliver sub-par products. Probably the best decision Frontier has made in years.

So speaks someone who's lucky enough to be able to afford a PC with the sort of spec required to run Odyssey. Are you alright, Jack?

 

[marmaduke davus]

gutted ,i could crush a grape:::::::::::::::: does that mean all my exploration data dies,spent years ,got every region known space,please let exploration from ps4 players ,go to pc ?

 

[Fizzatron]

We are investigating potential options but we don't have anything to announce at present.

 

[Boothen]

So when will the PC version of ED: Horizons be getting the graphical overhaul that was delayed until the console release?

 

[Fizzatron]

If I remember well it was an external cause about MACs not supporting some video tech that was crucial for the game, not lack of will of develpment.

It's not worth bothering, it has been stated many times and falls on willingly deaf ears.

 

[Chi Drifter]

10k hrs for £25 gpp ,great value,great times.
Thank you FD.
All the best
Cmdr ZenZak out-)
o7.

 

[Richard Methot]

Pc players will get a similar message, historically abandoning the Console version of games is simply a precursor to abandoning the pc version of the game. A sad day however not one that didn't come with giant red flags over the last 4 years.

 

[Lyamecron]

Davids statement reads like they held some stuff back ("...We need to be able to move forward with the story of the game...") that would have been released once console people were on board. (Leaks always suggested that)

Since the performance is still not that amazing on a lot of different systems and it could take a lot of time to fix that, I can understand why FDev would rather continue with what they envision as the future of elite, instead of spending a year or more on a possible console build with its own issues.

I can understand the frustration, but I can also see where FDev is coming from. I hope that there will be the possibility for all console CMDRs to transfer their stuff, if they choose to.

 

[SasaThargoidsHunter]

I own both the console and PC versions, and I’m entirely fine with this decision. I’ve enjoyed playing ED while relaxing on my couch at times, for a more casual experience, and there’s nothing stopping me from continuing to do so. When I want the walking around stuff, I have my PC for that. And ED on my PS4 already taxes the system pretty heavily with some slow FPS at times, so it was hard for me to imagine that a port of Odyssey wouldn’t make that worse and result in an experience I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy anyway.

I do feel for people who can only play on console … after all, when I started with ED I only had a Mac, and we all know what happened with that platform. But the existing console game isn’t lessened by this decision IMO ... console players still have an entire galaxy to explore, just like they did yesterday. I hope they will continue to enjoy it.

To your last point? I will defenetly stop to play. I mean for what? For Thargoids on foot ? Which I will neber see, the game will moving foreward and as an long term players HRZN offer me nothing to do.

 

[MaE2901]

We are investigating potential options but we don't have anything to announce at present.

What shall I say ... in my company we have some values. One of it is: Play fair, be honest.
I say: you are just leading us (the console player community) on. Shame on you!
Just admit how it is / will be: Console EDH will be seperated from the PC BGS, number of active console players will increase to a point that it makes no sence to keep the EDH server running, if you want to continue with ED, buy yourself a gaming PC and start all your activites from hundrests or thousands hours in the game from scratch.

 

[Bard Voronwe]

If you go by the 'unless something changes, the plan goes forward as stated' method, what I said is the logical next step. Though I agree that communication is key, but at this point I think it's right to let everyone digest this single situation before adding anything more to it, so I suspect next weeks' streams will address many of these questions.

Well, we had the updated 11 announced for a delayed date when we never had a first release date then delayed again, so... Even if Braben keeps saying that Elite is something he feels so close to him we can only think that the game itself is not a priority for the company.