source FDEV annual report 2013
"This clearly demonstrates the viability of the Elite: Dangerous
project. We had previously been running the project in order
todevelop the key innovative technologies necessary to deliver
the game’s vision, and this additional funding has allowed us to
put it into full production. We continue to successfully communicate
with the large customer/stakeholder community that has provided
this funding, and this close dialogue and engagement will
continue to the initial launch of the game and beyond."
1) the ks was always a financial "proof of concept" nothing more, which was always consistently communicated. so the backers are only a part (1/5 afaik) of the launch cost.
2) cobra engine development for ED as famous skunk works
2) communication with backers/stakeholders key before, during and after launch
"Frontier is in transition as our publishing activity with
Elite

angerous and the associated new services ramp up.
Although the opportunities and scope for Elite: Dangerous
togrow and develop are very substantial and the potential
financial rewards significant, particularly given how fast our
markets grow and change, it is very difficult for the Board
toknow exactly how quickly it will be taken up. For example,
some PC online games (Elite: Dangerous is a PC online game)
that have caught the public’s imagination, such as Minecraft
andWorld of Tanks, have reached estimated revenues of
over£100 million per annum over a small number of years.
Others have not grown quite so quickly, but on the additional
platforms the levels of success could be higher still.
We expect Elite: Dangerous revenues to grow gradually in a similar
way to other PC online games, but also that it will hit a quality
resonance at which point revenues would increase significantly,
as it did for those other titles"
1) change of business model (3rd party dev to publisher)
2) dangling the minecraft carrot but also taking it the minecraft way serious as THE way to publish for an indie
3) cobra engine again, facilitating growth via additional platforms like Xbox One
4) ED to grow gradually (You must understand it gradually, my Dear, a little at a time) until it hits the even more famous "quality resonance". this last sentence is critical as it means growing gradually both in revenue & content until a point where hopefully the game is "complete/good" enough to justify revenues of multi mio annually
now this for added clarity is from the annual report 2014
"We have continued to actively engage
with our player community to a very high degree since the end
of the ‘Alpha’ – in particular the super-cruise feature of the game
was defined with substantial valuable assistance from the
community. Such close dialogue and engagement will
continue to the initial launch of the game and beyond."
"We are planning to launch Elite: Dangerous in the fourth calendar
quarter of 2014. The current feedback to the game is such that
we expect to continue with a planned development roadmap for
further expansions to incrementally add major new features
such as landing on planets and player-character based gameplay
within and outside spaceships."