Frontier defends Elite: Dangerous' expansion pricing

72 Elitedangerous

There's been some controversy over the complex pricing of Elite Dangerous' next season of new features, Horizons, which most notably adds planetary landings. If you're new to Elite, it costs $60/£40 to pre-order Elite Dangerous with the Horizons expansion. If you already own Elite, you get a $15/£10 loyalty discount, bringing the price of Horizons down to $45/£30. That's still quite a bit of money for an expansion, and favors new players, who haven't already spent money on the game. Premium backers who already have lifetime expansion passes, of course, are peachy.

I spoke to Product Manager Ben Dowie back at PAX Prime, who justifies the price by noting that Horizons is "an entire season of expansions," not just planetary landings. He can't describe everything that's coming, though, saying that they "don't want to spoil it for everyone."

In the interview above, we talk about all of that, as well as what's coming in update 1.4. Horizons is releasing this winter.

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the rise of personal computers, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early PCs his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Bushido Blade (yeah, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He thought it was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.