Elite Dangerous is one of the most ambitious space sims of all time and presents a 1:1 model of the Milky Way Galaxy for players to explore. Unfortunately, Frontier Developments plans were a little too ambitious to continue supporting console versions of the game. As a result, CEO David Braben announced that further development of the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game has ended, and the Odyssey expansion will not be released on those platforms.
Why isn’t Elite Dangerous: Odyssey coming to PS4?
The PC launch of the Odyssey expansion for Elite Dangerous was disastrous, and since then, the PC and console playerbases have been split. Braben claims that the developers need to focus on one codebase to move the game forward. Unfortunately, the studio feels that the effort to update the PS4 version of the game to match the PC is too great to justify.
Understandably, Frontier wants to keep the game’s story moving forward. It’s essentially a live-service game, and keeping players engaged is what keeps money flowing to the studio. Torn between lengthening update cycles for the PC, where the bulk of the game’s audience undoubtedly is, and axing console support, the devs had to choose the lesser of two evils. Fortunately, the servers for the console versions of Elite Dangerous aren’t going down.
This isn’t the first time Frontier has made a decision like this. The Mac version of the game launched in 2015, only to be shuttered in 2018. Given that the console version of Odyssey was delayed in July 2021, it wasn’t hard to see where this was going. Unfortunately, players can’t directly transfer accounts from PS4 to PC. It’s possible to transfer the credit value of a character, but all progress is lost.
In other news, Gran Turismo’s first patch brings a race display feature, and Elden Ring is the top-selling game of February 2022.
