Surprise! Elite: Dangerous appears on Steam

Insert your own 'Shazam!' here if you like, because space combat sim Elite: Dangerous has suddenly appeared on Steam. However, Frontier Developments says that it currently has no plans to give Steam keys to those gamers who have already purchased it.

Elite: Dangerous on Steam is the same price as it is when purchased directly from Frontier—$60/£40—and the community manager said there is "no functional difference" between the two versions. He also explained how to add the original release to Steam libraries as a non-Steam game, which for now is as close as current owners can come to having it in their Steam libraries without buying it again. He did, however, leave the door open for a change of direction in the future.

"We don't have any plans to do this at the moment, but we'll be listening to player feedback and looking to see how much demand there is," he wrote.

Unsurprisingly, the demand is quite high: The Steam thread is rapidly expanding with calls for keys, as is one on Frontier's own forums. In the Frontier thread, Executive Producer Michael Brookes also confirmed that the studio does not plan to "immediately" add support for achievements or trading cards, but may do so in the future.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.