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Frontier promises it won't 'dumb down' Elite: Dangerous for Xbox
'Powerplay' mods coming soon, VR support already there
The Elite: Dangerous massively multiplayer online role-playing game is breaking its reliance on the PC and coming to consoles, but maker Frontier Developments has told players not to panic – there'll be no compromises made in the translation.
"I've said we'd be mad not to consider bringing Elite: Dangerous to console. Well, that madness is about to end! Today we're announcing that we will be bringing the full Elite: Dangerous to Xbox One this year," said Frontier Developments founder David Braben.
"Elite: Dangerous on Xbox One will be the complete and authentic Elite: Dangerous experience. It will not be 'dumbed down.' We'll be working with an all-new audience, but that doesn't mean a change in direction for the game, and nor does it mean slowing development on the PC version."
The Xbox port is expected this summer and will include the recent "Wings" update that adds new features like droppable navigation beacons, better chat functions, and some basic changes to how ships are repaired and rebuilt.
In the next couple of months, Frontier plans to release another upgrade pack, dubbed "Powerplay." Frontier isn't saying what's in it, but it's likely to include more features for collaborative play and allow more equitable sharing of bounties between hunters.
At this year's Game Developers Conference, Frontier showed off its latest Elite build on a setup that allowed players to use the Oculus Rift headset. The firm was one of the first to support the VR facemasks, and its communications manager told El Reg that other headsets will be supported.
"We've always wanted to support bleeding edge technologies," Matthew Gapper said. "At the moment we're supporting Oculus but the new HTC Vive headset would work really well with Elite and we're happy to work with Microsoft on the HoloLens system." ®