ANNOUNCEMENT Elite Dangerous: Horizons for PS4

[Ozric]

Anyone else care to chip in?

I'm being serious. Game companies have no control over whether their game can be cross platform or not, just look at Rocket League. Though to be fair to Microsoft they did a very good job of making it look as though it's on the developers.

Though as has been pointed out the duplication of Cmdr names, is probably the biggest thing holding this back.

 

[Mengy]

It’s nice to see they’ve finally confirmed the PS4 version is a thing! While I’m super happy for the PS4 owners, I don’t own one, so I’ll be sticking with the PC like I do for all of my gaming. But that trailer was really sweet!

I do admit though that I’m wondering just how much extra work it is to maintain the development of the game on three separate platforms? Can Frontier handle and keep up with this workload in a timely manner? I certainly hope so, as I’d hate to see the progress of the game negatively impacted by adding the PS4 to the mix. But a larger audience is a good thing too, that means more paintjobs and flair sold, plus more expansions sold down the road, so hopefully Frontier will be able to hire more personnel to handle the extra workload.

 

[VR Morgan Grimes]

I'll just leave this asteroid base here...

 

[Ozric]

The Frontier Store page on Horizons used to say Q3 for 2.3 and Q4 for 2.4, but later was silently edited. (When the schedule slipped, so not days after Horizons was launched.) Also, the developers did imply that they plan to release one major update per quarter. Obviously those are no longer the current plans, but we don't know what they are. Please read my earlier post, my point was that the announcement of the PS4 port taking priority over what the majority of the existing player base is waiting for isn't exactly sending the best message. But that could still be amended with at least some info in tonight's newsletter.

Yes the plans changed, plans change all the time and some of them are unexpected, which is exactly why Frontier are right to not release a road map.

I did read your earlier post and I don't agree at all the the announcement of the ps4 release is taking priority over the existing player base. I would have thought that it was obvious for the timing of the announcement (Christmas, new Star Wars). Also the newsletter's tomorrow

 

[oscarolim]

Since the Horizons update, the games are actually in sync. All minor patches are in beta first, before they release globally.

That is not 100% accurate.
Last patch, there was a hot fix patch for PC that came at least a week before it came on Xbox. One thing that I remember is the planetary coordinates being the other way around on console much longer than they were on PC.

So, no. They are not always on sync.

 

[lysan]

Great news, now NEXT LEGS!!!

 

[Miklos Atreides]

It’s nice to see they’ve finally confirmed the PS4 version is a thing! While I’m super happy for the PS4 owners, I don’t own one, so I’ll be sticking with the PC like I do for all of my gaming. But that trailer was really sweet!

I do admit though that I’m wondering just how much extra work it is to maintain the development of the game on three separate platforms? Can Frontier handle and keep up with this workload in a timely manner? I certainly hope so, as I’d hate to see the progress of the game negatively impacted by adding the PS4 to the mix. But a larger audience is a good thing too, that means more paintjobs and flair sold, plus more expansions sold down the road, so hopefully Frontier will be able to hire more personnel to handle the extra workload.

primerily it is not that bad as long as code is written with discipline to the given rules to make them cross platform as much as they can.
This way you can code 95% cross platform and 4.5% with if platform= ??
The rest is to be covered in extensive unit and integration testing before passing on to get the final built.

Main problem is crative programmers are rarely disciplined.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[Brett C]

That is not 100% accurate.
Last patch, there was a hot fix patch for PC that came at least a week before it came on Xbox. One thing that I remember is the planetary coordinates being the other way around on console much longer than they were on PC.

So, no. They are not always on sync.

On the PC platform, we can push out updates as required after it gets a pass from QA. As for the Xbox One platform, it will have to go thru our QA and Microsoft's QA team, which does take a little longer.

 

[prd]

Good i'm happy for you FD.
Anyway... now I will also need those asteroid stations in the gaem.. and also me legs to walk around and go to the ship toilet or I will hurt myself pls

 

[Brett C]

Great news, now NEXT LEGS!!!

Space Legs... I don't quite recall this.

 

[CMDR GTR2014]

Trailer spoilers

Spoiler

0:18 Asteroid station
0:46 dolphin very small teaser
0:49 station and space construction?(station at left)
0:50 New station exterior?!
0:52 new geological stuff on ground?
1:06 WAT? isn't SLF to be tele-presence stuff?
1:34 Elvira martuuk as a copilot!
2:08 BIG showcase of the Dolphin!

 

[Harbinger]

Great news, now NEXT LEGS!!!

I'll just leave this image here:

 

[Cydramech]

I own a PS4 but unless cross-platform play is supported or somehow I can play with my data intact (like with any MMO), I won't get it for PS4. I ain't interested in starting over.

It's great to see that a whole new bunch of commanders will be joining us soon.

So funny to see all the people going on about needing to know when 2.3 is coming, it's only been 6 weeks since 2.2 for pity's sake.


Do all of the people asking about cross platform play really think that it's Frontier who make those decisions?

Microsoft and Sony make the decisions about whether crossplay is allowed, not the companies that design and make the games.

False. So long as the publisher or develop pays for their own servers, neither Sony nor Microsoft have even the slightest bit of authority to decide whether cross-play is allowable.

 

[Marcns007]

yes

My computer only has a year left before a PS4 Pro priced upgrade is required.

Please can we transfer our accounts from PC to PS4? Happy to pay for this; say our net worth but need to use a PS account name?

 

[Globusdiablo]

...I do admit though that I’m wondering just how much extra work it is to maintain the development of the game on three separate platforms? Can Frontier handle and keep up with this workload in a timely manner?...

Surely FD will be hiring. E: D seems to be snowballing into one of the paramount games of the decade.

 

[marx]

I did read your earlier post and I don't agree at all the the announcement of the ps4 release is taking priority over the existing player base.

Mhm. The fact though is that today's PS4 announcement came before (and without) already-promised news about 2.3. I didn't say it was development that took priority, I said it was the announcement that did. If you read my earlier posts, you'll notice that I said this wasn't the best from a community management standpoint, not from a development one.
From the latter, it makes sense that they did a PS4 port. From what Ben Parry, an ex-employee of FD has said, Frontier is quite strict with enforcing that their programmers stay true to the company's coding standards, and since the game is multiplatform already, adding a PS4 port should be less work for the porting team than adding the XBox port was.

 

[Toumal]

I'll just leave this image here:

http://i.imgur.com/6yvDsck.jpg

Those chairs look quite a bit different from the current model.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

This isn't a confirmation of this at all... we can't confirm any dates right now, but don't take this as accurate information.

Don't mean to sound cagey! Sorry, I just don't have any exact dates for you right now!

Well - how about vague dates then?

 

[Ozric]

False. So long as the publisher or develop pays for their own servers, neither Sony nor Microsoft have even the slightest bit of authority to decide whether cross-play is allowable.

Like I said in a later post, when Microsoft announced they were finally going to remove their barriers they certainly made it seem as though there had never been a problem on their part. However that's not always been the case and I would be surprised if it still is the whole truth.

(this is well after ED launched on Xbox)
http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/4/9849068/rocket-league-xbox-one-cross-platform-play

Mhm. The fact though is that today's PS4 announcement came before (and without) already-promised news about 2.3.

? already promised?

 

[Delilah]

Very please for PS4 players. I do hope that your addition gives Frontier some incentive and resources to address the manifold problems in ED.