Elite Dangerous abandons console development

Frontier has confirmed it will no longer be developing Elite Dangerous for consoles.

In a brief statement, Frontier CEO David Braben acknowledged that the release of Elite Dangerous' exploration update, Odyssey, "was less than ideal" and confirmed that as a consequence of Odyssey's delayed console release and the team's focus on the PC version of the game, "with a heavy heart [Frontier has] decided to cancel all console development".

"Elite Dangerous is a game close to my heart," Braben said in a statement posted to the official site. "It’s no secret that Odyssey’s launch was less than ideal, including the need to split the PC/console player base to focus on a PC-only launch. Since Odyssey’s release in May 2021, we have worked tirelessly to improve the Odyssey experience on PC, and whilst we have made great progress there is still more to be done. We have been supporting the pre-Odyssey and post-Odyssey codebases since.

"Over the last several months, we have been wrestling with the best way to move forward, and it is with a heavy heart we have decided to cancel all console development," the statement continues. "We need to be able to move forward with the story of the game, and in order for us to do this, we need to focus on a single codebase. Elite Dangerous will continue on console as it is now together with critical updates, but we will focus on new content updates on PC on the post-Odyssey codebase."

In closing, Braben said the team "appreciate[s] this news is not what our console community were hoping for" but assured players "this was not an easy decision to make, but it was made with the long-term future of Elite Dangerous in mind".

Although it's a tad late to get involved with Elite Dangerous on console now, of course, there's still the PC version if its piqued your interest. In GamesRadar+'s Elite Dangerous review - in which we gave the game 4 out of 5 stars - we said: "The size can be overwhelming, and the often brutal lack of hand-holding won’t suit every kind of player. Be prepared for a much slower-paced game than you might be used to. 

"You’ll need to invest a lot of time in Elite: Dangerous to see the best of what it has to offer. But once you’ve conquered that steep learning curve, you can start shaping your own destiny among the stars."

While Elite Dangerous is no longer being updated for console, there are plenty of big titles on our upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games lists that you can get stuck into.