Updated: 27th October 2021
Release Date: PC – PC Release – 19th May 2021 | Console – Autumn 2021
Available on: PC, XBox One, PS4, VR – Partial
PC Specifications: See here.
Pre order: Elite:Dangerous Odyssey (£29.99/$39.99/34.99EUR) | Elite: Dangerous Odyssey Deluxe Alpha (£39.99/$54.99/46.99EUR) | Steam Store
Please note that this page provides a brief overview of Odyssey. For full details please see the ‘Odyssey: Full Breakdown’ page.
> Announcement
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One the 3rd June 2020 at 3.14pm Frontier officially announced the next major release for the game due in the first quarter of 2021 – Odyssey. This will enable players to set foot on existing airless planets as well as those with a ‘tenuous atmosphere’. All of these planets have been given a significant visual makeover thanks to the new tech that significantly improves their appearance.
On the 12th January 2021 Frontier then announced a change to this date saying that the PC version would be released before the 31st May 2021, with an alpha in early spring 2021, and the console version coming in the Autumn of 2021. This has been due to issues with working remotely due to Covid. Late Frontier confirmed that the Alpha would be released on the 29th March 2021. On the 23rd April Frontier confirmed that the releas date for Odyssey would be the 19th May 2021, with further content updates to come after this date.
> Promotional Trailers & Information
“Disembark, Commander, and leave your mark on the galaxy in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. Explore distant worlds on foot and expand the frontier of known space. Be the first to step out onto countless unique planets as you discover land untouched since time began. Elite Dangerous: Odyssey invites you to become a true pioneer.”
“So you’ve disembarked, you’re standing for the first time on an unexplored planet. What can you do next? Here’s a brief overview of what you can look forward to in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. For more details see other pages in the Odyssey seciton of this blog.
One Giant Leap
“See the galaxy like never before. Touch down on breathtaking planets powered by stunning new tech, soak in suns rising over unforgettable vistas, discover outposts and settlements, and explore with unrestricted freedom.
Forge Your Own Path
“Take on a wide variety of contracts and play your way, from diplomacy and commerce to lethal stealth and all-out combat. Diverse settings, objectives, and NPCs offer endless mission variety and a near infinite amount of content to enjoy.
Assemble Your Crew
“Social hubs spread throughout the galaxy give Commanders the ideal place to plan their next move. Form alliances, procure services, and even find expert support in highly coveted Engineers. These public outposts also help you acquire and upgrade weapons and gear to perfect your playing style.
The Sphere of Combat
“Experience intense first-person combat, kit out your character with an array of weapons and gear, and coordinate with teammates to master a multi-layered, deep, tactical environment where Commanders, SRVs and Starships converge.
“From now until launch, we’ll be sharing more information, developer diaries and trailers as we get ready to embark on this exciting new adventure!”
The Journey So Far…
On the 7th December Frontier released a trailer called, ‘The Journey So Far’.
Odyssey Gameplay Trailer
On the 11th Decembger 2020 Frontier released a shrot gameplay trailer and announced pre-order details for the game.
On the 4th March 2021 Frontier released a recorded video showing one of the planetary missions available in the game. This was shot in a pre-alpha build of the game and was edited.
> Previously…
>
On the 1st March 2019 Frontier announced that the next major game update would not be appearing until the later half of 2020, before later pushing this back until the first quarter of 2021 due to issues surrounding Covid-19. You can see the details below along with what else they expect to release before it arrives. This other content can also be found in a new page, here.
A preview of what is coming is still scheduled to be shown during the summer of 2020.
Greetings Commanders,
We’ve had a number of questions from our community eagerly awaiting news on the future development for Elite Dangerous. We wanted to share a development update with you which talks a little more about our upcoming development plans. It’s a long read but we wanted to be as open as we can at this stage with where progress is and what information we are able to share. There will be more news and updates over the coming months.
Beyond
It’s been a little over two months since Beyond – Chapter Four, our final instalment in the Beyond season, arrived and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from the community. Beyond allowed us to deliver a year of free updates to Elite Dangerous in order to build, enhance, compliment and connect the content that has been added since launch. This step in the ongoing evolution of Elite was vital. The long-term vision for the game, even from the early days, has always been ambitious and we are committed to supporting the game with that vision in mind. All of this is made possible by the support of our amazing community. We were truly delighted that from Beyond – Chapter Four, we’ve seen one of our highest ever player counts with many hundreds of thousands of Commanders jumping in and taking to their cockpits together. Thank you!
The Next Era
Back in August, we mentioned that the team had begun work on the next major era of Elite. We believe this will be a defining moment in the history of the game and it will be our biggest update yet.
In that post, we explained that the content was still very early in development, so we won’t be ready to announce it for a while. To give this more context, in order to realise the ambition for this update, and the size and scope of the content we wish to bring to the Elite Dangerous galaxy, we estimate this major milestone will be ready by the latter half of 2020.
As development progresses, we will share more news and announcements on features, as well as timelines regarding this upcoming content for Elite. We can understand that having a long wait for news can be frustrating, but we truly believe that this will be the single most impactful update for our community. Having a development team dedicated to this milestone is our continued and unwavering commitment to making Elite Dangerous the most authentic, ambitious, and expansive evolving space game in the world.
As mentioned in our previous post, this new era will be paid for content and all lifetime expansion pass owners will have this included in their pass.
What now?
We know that waiting for a mammoth update like this one is going to feel like your 3rd run to Hutton Orbital. But don’t fret, we’ve got plenty of updates, content, and plans happening as we progress through to this monumental milestone.
As well as the team of developers working on our next big milestone, we also have a smaller development team focused on adding to and improving the existing game between now and that time. This will take the form of regular game updates and development supported events.
Development supported events
One of the biggest changes will be the way that we create and support in-game events and activities. Starting in the coming months, we will be looking to change the way that in-game events happen. The aim here is to create ongoing, engaging, and varied sets of content that are supported by the development team which players will be able to actively engage in.
We have listened to community feedback regarding Community Goals and while they are an incredible tool, they have become somewhat routine for many Commanders. We felt that we needed to adjust them to be more event-related while taking our in game events a big step further. We will gradually be changing our community goals and their frequency, using them within a larger schedule of development-led events to help us create more improved, meaningful and engaging experiences.
As well as Community Goals, we will also be using things like new scenarios, reputation and reward boosts (such as Superpower reputation increases), BGS and global galactic changes, in-game interactions, new game assets and much more to make game-wide events that tie into the game world. The aim is to constantly create new and exciting events and campaigns for you to get involved in and shape, which will focus on and benefit different types of players.
Outside of the game, we’ll communicate with you about these events, how they work and what goes into developing Elite Dangerous.
Regular updates
In addition to the weekly and monthly activity happening in Elite, we will also be releasing a series of updates roughly every 3-4 months. The first two of these updates will primarily focus on new player and welcoming experiences, and we will also be introducing a number of quality of life improvements for the entire player base, of which we will have more news on in the coming weeks. This will help ensure that new players are able to better progress through the game, and therefore help bring more players through to our very awesome, very welcoming community. We will also have additional game tweaks, benefits and bug fixes for all players. In the subsequent updates we will be focusing on bringing in new features, perks and content, including a range of exciting new additions to the game that will build up to this new era.
It is important to note that these updates will not take the same level of content or size that we have seen from our previous updates in Beyond or Horizons, as the majority of the development team will be focusing on the new era.
Elite Dangerous has an incredibly passionate, enthusiastic and talented community, and we’re committed to supporting Elite now and for the future. We would like to take this opportunity to say, once again, that none of this would be possible without the continued support and dedication from our community – so, thank you. Keep sharing your feedback with us, and if you have any questions feel free to share them with us by posting in this thread. We’ll try and answer as many of them as we can.
The Elite Dangerous Team
Before this the first confirmation of major landmark content after the Beyond series came on the 31st August 2018 when Frontier announced the following:
“We do have one exciting piece of news to share that to date, we have not shared with our community. A while ago, our development went from pre-production into full production on our next major milestone of Elite development.
“What that means in the simplest terms is that the team are actively working on the next major landmark which takes us into our next era for Elite. We aren’t going to be ready to talk about or announce any details for quite a while yet, it is early in the development and there is still a long way to go, but I can say that this is something that will be scheduled to release a considerable time after the final update in the Beyond series. We will have more details on exactly what this means and how the era will roll out after the release of Beyond – Chapter Four, but this does mark some exciting next steps and a continued commitment to the long term vision for the game and our community.
“Naturally, there will be community questions that might come up from this information. We aren’t going to be ready to talk about what method or model the content will be. What we can say is that it’s expected to be a major milestone in the history of Elite and will be paid content. Lifetime Expansion owners will obviously receive the content as part of their pass.”
On the 22nd October 2019 Frontier announced that there would be news on the details of the update in the summer of 2020.
Then the 14th April 2019 an alleged leak appeared on the website 4Chan claiming that the next Elite milestone would contain ‘Space Legs’ and base building – the later of which they subsequently stated ‘was not on their roadmap’.
During their Trading Statement filing in November 2020 Frontier announced,
“The future for Elite Dangerous is also exciting. Frontier is developing a major new paid-for release for the iconic space simulation which will dramatically expand gameplay and mark the beginning of a new era for Elite Dangerous. This will be characterised by significant new features to appeal to existing commanders, whilst being specifically designed to be a compelling, attractive and welcoming entry point for new players. Targeted for launch at the end of 2020, this major new release on multiple platforms will fall into financial year 2021 (the 12 months ending 31 May 2021).”
On the 17th March 2020 Frontier announced via a forum post that there would be a delay until the first quarter of 2021 due to issues surrounding Covid-19,
“Hi everyone,
“We’d like to take a moment to update you all on what’s happening at Frontier with regards to COVID-19, and what you can expect from us in the foreseeable future.
“In order to safeguard the health and safety of all Frontier employees, we are implementing a work from home policy across the studio.
“Frontier’s games and channels bring joy to the community, and we are all united in our love of these fantastic worlds and the positive impact they produce; this is why we are working hard to avoid any disruption and will do our very best to keep you updated and entertained throughout this challenging time.
“Our games will continue to be supported (including online functionality), and at the moment we do not anticipate any major changes to our plans across all titles. However, with the situation changing daily, we will keep you informed and appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to bring the best gaming experiences to our players. Our Communications team will continue to be active across our channels, including forums, Reddit, Discord, and social media; our Customer Support team will continue to offer help and support through our dedicated support channels, and game teams will continue their work on future updates and releases.
“As an added precaution, we are restricting work-related travel for the time being, which means we are not attending any events at the current time.
“Our hearts and minds are with you and your family; we will continue to monitor the global situation and will adjust our operations as necessary, and keep you posted. Please stay safe and healthy, and thank you for your ongoing patience and support.”
Take care,
The Frontier team
Elite: Odyssey 