The Old Elite IV speculation thread

[turwhitt]

Thanks for that.

The pertinent bit, for those hard of attention:

After the main portion of the talk, Braben was asked by an audience member if Elite 4 was still on the drawing board.

"Yes," he replied. "It would be a tragedy if it [weren't]."

...when the feeling's gone and you can't go on it's.... ahem. Sorry.

It's good to see him still talking about his prodigal child, but in all honesty i don't think it's made me any more hopeful.

I reckon the best chance is if one of us Elite fanatics wins the lottery and ploughs every penny into buying the rights and developing it.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Firstly welcome to the forum Phil

Interesting article especially the end part as you say...

After the main portion of the talk, Braben was asked by an audience member if Elite 4 was still on the drawing board.

"Yes," he replied. "It would be a tragedy if it weren't."

Although a lot of posters on here are losing heart that it will ever be made (myself included). It does give a slight glimmer of hope. I just wish that DB would comfirm it on here that it will be made. Even if there is no time scale.

Anyway, welcome again.

 

[Steve O B Have]

Firstly welcome to the forum Phil

Interesting article especially the end part as you say...

Although a lot of posters on here are losing heart that it will ever be made (myself included). It does give a slight glimmer of hope. I just wish that DB would comfirm it on here that it will be made. Even if there is no time scale.

Anyway, welcome again.

It's entirely possible that 'on the drawing board' means a picture of a hand sketch stuck to a pinboard with a drawing pin.

I reckon the best chance is if one of us Elite fanatics wins the lottery and ploughs every penny into buying the rights and developing it.

Don't think I haven't thought of this of course I'd only do it on the express condition that we end up on the executive producers board!!!

You know all personal wants aside - it strikes me that doing Elite 4, and doing it properly is exactly the thing that David and Frontier need to be doing. The revenue can be easily put toward all the flights of fancy they could dream of - I really think they've been going at this the wrong way. IMO of course.

Oh and Welcome Phil!

 

[bananascope]

i shall remain cynical and then one day i may be pleasently surprised

 

[Geraldine]

Get On With It!

Yes it would be a tragedy indeed. My response would be something like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KexudBb_oc

Oh, and welcome to the forum Phil

 

[DrBaggy]

Welcome to the forum Phil, it's good to have something positive here. To use the famous Mandy Rice Davis quote, "he would say that wouldn't he". It's the transition from an aspiration to anything like reality, particularly the huge investment so soon after their big project stalled, that seems the problem. My money is still on Frontier being forced to produce cute fluffy things to keep the company afloat for the forseeable future, but liked others here I'd love my pessimism to be proved wrong.
The plan was always that E4 would come out after the Outsider pioneered the software needed to make it. Well, although it got canned, Outsider was pretty much finished, so why no announcement? If we have gone from "we will do it after..." to "we still want to do it sometime" that doesn't feel like progress. Sorry to see you other guys feel equaly pessimistic: this has been a great, friendly, well informed and polite forum over the years. Worth looking at most days for the past few years even if E4 remains vapourware.

 

[Geraldine]

What IF?

Yes it is true that the rumour mill did say "after outsider", but consider this.

What IF Frontier have learned all they need from nearly finishing The Outsider? What IF they decided that The Outsider would be lost amongst other big up and coming releases like for example, Deus Ex 3? Remember folks, not many outside the Elite community, realise the significance of The Outsider. To most, it would be just another shooty type game.

Pity the developer who happens to coincide their games release at the same time as a potentially massive title. So many great games of the past have bombed because they came out at the wrong time. How many great games were overshadowed by Doom, Splinter Cell or Black Ops? I am sure you can think of many.

So what to do?
Switch development to "another title" that can hold it's own against anything else in the market. Something with a well known pedigree. Put the lessons learned in developing The Outsider to good use and make Kinectimals 2!





Only kidding!


Or am I?:S

 

[Sir.Tj]

I did wonder about what stage The Outsider reached before it was put on hold. from what I've seen and read it must have been quite close to completion. If The Outsider's game engine was to be the basis for Elite 4, all may be not lost.

Just wish I knew what they plan to do next :S

 

[Spacegamer]

Petty much the standard reply given to the standard question ie there are still on the fence about doing anything.
At least it wasn’t the George Lucas excuse about technology not being right. Remember what that led to.

 

[Steve O B Have]

I did wonder about what stage The Outsider reached before it was put on hold. from what I've seen and read it must have been quite close to completion. If The Outsider's game engine was to be the basis for Elite 4, all may be not lost.

Just wish I knew what they plan to do next :S

From what I understand it was fully playable, the difficulties were coming from the character interaction mechanic detracting from flow and gameplay. The publishers balked at it's large departure from what gamers are used to... I also understand that there were some issues around the size of the environment and the open nature being too open... something like that anyway...

From where I am it does seem somewhat like there was something of an intractability from both sides when it came to finding some middle ground and then end result is a game on hold/cancelled and us being a very large distance further away from a development start on E4.

Of course I could be wrong - it's rather hard to decypher all the scuttlebutt on the web and get a true picture... but there is quite a bit there if you can be bothered trolling through the various articles and comments...

 

[DrBaggy]

The publishers balked at it's large departure from what gamers are used to... I also understand that there were some issues around the size of the environment and the open nature being too open... something like that anyway...

History repeating itself? Reading the article that started this thread it seems they struggled to get a publisher as Elite (didn't know it was going to be called The Elite but not enough memory!) was too radical.

I guess it's similar to films where the financial stakes are such that it's safer to release teenage blow-em-up 3 rather than something thoughtful and original (like, say, the King's Speech: that'll never be a success!)

Still, the lack of an announcement from Frontier is worrying. Is their cash flow enough to commit to another long development?

 

[turwhitt]

I also understand that there were some issues around the size of the environment and the open nature being too open...

Grr!

Sad indictment of the future of games, it seems.

 

[boringnick]

Regarding The Outsider- I've read some reports that it was nearly done. If true it's such a waste to just can it.

If no big publisher is interested, then release it at least on steam for a few bucks to recoup some of the costs.

 

[Spacegamer]

Regarding The Outsider- I've read some reports that it was nearly done. If true it's such a waste to just can it.

If no big publisher is interested, then release it at least on steam for a few bucks to recoup some of the costs.

It might not be a PC game, after all when was the last time Frontier made a PC game???.

 

[Andelor]

Long time fan

I have been reading these forums on and off for the past years.

I was hooked on the Amiga version of Elite Frontier II - easily topping my top 10 games list. Against heavy competition from for example UT - Unreal Tournament ('99 version) which I still play to this day. Or Ultima Online... To mention a few top games in different genres.

Anyway, it is all down to money, isn't it. A sad but true fact.

Elite 4 have alot of promise going for it. But time is working against it. We old timers will remember the original games fondly. But is there a market for such a game in the younger generations... My guess is, that it is not going to. It needs more elements in order to be succesful.

 

[SuperG]

Such game development postmortem is as alway's very interresting. Espacialy about such historical game "Elite"

This is a example of the old day's where genres where started.
And doing your own thing was a lot more reachable. But still difficult. Well that time it's more about programming getting the most out of the limited hardware. Content you don't need army's of artist. You got a more even balance. 3 to 10 man teams. So small dev team's. Like the more serious larger indi games today.

Most dev's arent'working on there own think but something publisher want to do and contract dev's to do it. The sequel pipeline. Wich a large part the industry is. And I do like sequels.
I think any dev big to small and the million wannabe dev's have there own brainchild. Me to. But only a small can do there thing. Or push it trough within the industry. A big one is Spore. But for every sucses there are many fail's.

So wenn DB say it's still in the pipe. Well many dev's want to make there brain child or the next iteration, only a few can do. And little part of that are realy deliverd and a few of them are a suces. Being a profesional or dev with some fame helps a lot. But it isn't easy to push trough.

BEcause in today's market space games aren't to much absent. Only a few medicore clones. Or rushed unfinished games. The last big title was freelancer.
So it's even harder.

So I believe a bit more in a Elite 4. At least more then 50% chance it's realy chance to get deliverd into the market somewhere in the future.
Wenn the funding is done a publisher committed and are mid production and have a alfa milestone. Because there are so many pitfalls. that can stop a game in production.

That would also be the time to make something public. With something to show off. A promise mean nothing. PReproduction dito.

It just take a lot to make a game and there are a lot of barriers to take.


Because there where some games I have be realy waiting for that where far into production like Stargate Sg1 the Alliance. But where canned some publsiher vs dev's problems.
Now MMO stargate worlds canned.
Stargate resistance killed off.

So my hopes are low.

What we do know is DB want to make it.

 

[Geraldine]

It might not be a PC game, after all when was the last time Frontier made a PC game???.

That's a good point Spacegamer! Windows Live then if its a 360 title?
I really wish Frontier would at least give us their view of the situation. I mean this is their forum after all. :S

 

[SuperG]

I think the only thing know and suitable to make plubic is that DB want it.

But most devs have there own thing they want to make but only a few get it done and the publisher back up for.

Even for a dev with fame and a decent CV it isnt a easy task.

There are a lot of barrierres and milestones and pifalls and disateres lurking out to hit it till goldmaster is deliverd.

Going public only wenn there is news to lett out.
Like within alfa stage and want feedback.

Because if frontier isn't starting or are in planning what to do next. And are in the proces of make a disision.
And it is nohing set in stone wenn to prouce E4 then there is just nothing to put public.

I think the next press release about E4 should be wenn they start preproduction again.
And optional a feedback forum got active.

And for now we don'nt know the state frontier studio is in. After the outsider dissaster.

 

[The Space Pirate]

I've been away for ages - what's this about Outsider? What happened? I mean, I'm not fussed about 'Outsider' - it's Elite IV that I'm interested in, but it sounds as though this might have damaged Frontier Studios a bit? Personally I don't think it's looking too good: Elite IV was put on hold and then they said it'll be released after Outsider, but now Outsider's been put on hold.

Edit: I read somewhere that it's coming on the consoles as well - more bad news.

 

[rgmarett]

What's wrong with consoles? I have a PC and a console and I suspect I'm not the only one.