Elite IV is happening, but "very slowly"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 22 July, 2011

The Outsider "will come out", says Braben.

Elite IV is happening, Frontier boss David Braben has confirmed, but "very slowly".

At GDC this year the legendary British game developer gave us an update on the status of Elite IV, saying "it would be a tragedy" if it was not still on the cards.

This week at the Develop conference in Brighton Braben told Eurogamer: "We're not announcing anything yet. I'm not giving a timescale because that constitutes an announcement. If you announce an announcement, that's an announcement.

"The trouble is, I get a lot of people saying, oh you really need to announce it now, and why are you doing x, y, z, a, b, c?

"But it has to be right. It has to be the right thing. You have to have the right people on it. It's all a question of balance.

"It's happening, very slowly."

Braben refused to comment when asked whether Elite IV is intended as a current generation or next generation game.

He did, however, confirm that work on the oft-delayed The Outsider, announced in 2005, is "on hold".

That, he said, "is a real shame". But there is hope.

"The Outsider is a brilliant game. I do want to do some sort of, not so much an announcement, but show people that. It's currently de-prioritised.

"It's on hold, if you like, which is a real shame. But that's not to say it might not go somewhere in the future.

"It's amazing how quickly the industry changes. And, among others, we're trying to change it. We've just got to think carefully about what we do.

"It's a lovely idea. I'm sure it will come out in some form at some point."

The Outsider, announced as a game that would bring around the same sort of freedom as Braben's other famous creation, Elite, is a high-tech thriller that pops you in the shoes of an Elite CIA agent made public enemy number one at the outset of the game.

Frontier is currently hard at work on Kinect Disneyland Adventures, due out this Christmas. It created Kinect launch title Kinectimals.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • scowat #1 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 16:41:01 08-02-2012

  • PixelPirate #2 10 months ago

    yeah hes right Kinect Disneyland Adventures is waaaaay more important than the outsider or another Elite, defo worth spending the time on that first.... /sarcasm
    Edited by PixelPirate at 22/07/11 @ 12:10

  • YobRenoops #3 10 months ago

    Stop fucking around with Kinect and make a real game Braben

  • Golgo #4 10 months ago

    Project development is currently at the 'scribbles-on-the-back-of-a-beer-mat' stage.

    It's not coming, is it?

  • Golgo #5 10 months ago

    @PixelPirate: well, he is trying to run a business in difficult times. What's the more likely sell? An ancient IP perhaps best left to nostalgia, an untested IP in an already well-established genre, or Disney-at-Christmas?

  • Eraysor #6 10 months ago

    I want Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 /lynched

  • teamtink #7 10 months ago

    Hmmm /taps foot

  • Laminator #8 10 months ago

    The next Elite is called Infinity and Braben has nothing to do with it. Sorry Braben that ship sailed.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eREddMj...

  • zapzone #9 10 months ago

    The fact that they're working on a title like Kinect Disneyland Adventures says to me that Frontier is short of money. This is probably why The Outsider is on hold - I.e. they can't afford to finish it.

    If I'm right this puts Elite IV in a very bad position. To fulfil David Braben's ambitions for this game they're going to need bucket loads of cash - and they simply don't have it.

  • Eraysor #10 10 months ago

    The should make Elite IV Minecraft-style. A lot of people will buy the initial version because it's Elite, then it'll slowly pick up more players as it grows.

  • Lebowski #11 10 months ago

    Mankind will have actually colonized space for real before Elite IV comes out.

  • Kazama74 #12 10 months ago

    Pff, I've switched over to Eve Online. Would love to see Elite, but I doubt it'll ever happen. Wish they would merge all the good ideas of both Elite and Privateer into one game. Put some story into it as well.
    Edited by Kazama74 at 22/07/11 @ 12:38

  • FireMonkey #13 10 months ago

    @PixelPirate - "yeah hes right Kinect Disneyland Adventures is waaaaay more important than the outsider or another Elite, defo worth spending the time on that first.... /sarcasm"

    Yes it is more important. The Disney game will bring in a lot of money for them now, so that they can work on the other costly products later.

    You can't make a large scale game with no money. I'm sure if a publisher stepped up and offered to pay for the development then more dev time would be spent on Elite, but I am guessing no publisher has yet (which probably indicates it is not very far along or is very different and needs to prove itself) and so they are keeping themselves in business.

  • Spook #14 10 months ago

    I hope the wait is worth it. I loved Elite Frontier on the Amiga back when i was 13-14, it took me a week to read the bloody manual!

    Oh and Infinity isn't number 4, just been inspired by it Elite, just like X: Beyond the Frontier and it's sequels.

    If they are stuck for cash, why don't they release the first 3 on xbox live and PSN, as Frontier was ported to the Amiga CD32 (Yes i hold my hand up, i owned one!) so they do work on console based gaming.

    Regards

    Commander Jameson ;)

  • Deeeev #15 10 months ago

    Oh is it that time of year again, time flys!
    Edited by Deeeev at 22/07/11 @ 13:08

  • LetsGo #16 10 months ago

    Kinect Disneyland will make NO money for them as noone will buy it!

    As much as MS like to think it is, Kinect is NOT owned by the mainstream audience yet. It isn't a Wii.

    Who will buy Kinect Disneyland?
    Edited by LetsGo at 22/07/11 @ 13:24

  • Subdominator #17 10 months ago

    @PixelPirate: I guess Disneyland Adventures will sell 2 million, Elite IV maybe 1/10 of that. Games like Elite or Master of Orion are from a different era. They are extinct for a reason, they don't sell anymore. Disneyland Adventures on the other hand is frickin' Disneyland. You pay as much as for the game just to visit the park once. It's gonna sell loads of copies. Game development is not about what is the most interesting project, it's about what pays the bills.

    @LetsGo: I seriously hope for your own sake that you are not as dumb as the words you just posted. Because if you actually believe a single word of that ... Jesus!
    Edited by Subdominator at 22/07/11 @ 13:28

  • scowat #18 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 16:41:01 08-02-2012

  • MisterM #19 10 months ago

    I temped at Frontier briefly, many years ago. Still fondly remember the day they announced to the company that a new Elite was about to start production. We're talking 7 years or so ago, here.

  • nooneyouknow #20 10 months ago

    I guess Disneyland Adventures will sell 2 million, Elite IV maybe 1/10 of that.

    As much as I hate to say it, I doubt it would even do that.

  • Nephirion #21 10 months ago

    Any slower and it would be at standstill

  • FireMonkey #22 10 months ago

    @Lets Go - "Who will buy Kinect Disneyland?"

    The millions of kids it is aimed at maybe?

    Anyway, it doesn't matter to Frontier if it makes money or not really as they are being paid to make the game not by royalties.
    Obviously they want it to make money as that puts them in good standing with the publisher and Disney and so will be more likely to get more contracts.

  • jefranklin18 #23 10 months ago

    @MisterM: We're talking 7 years or so ago, here.

    Actually it was first mentioned on Usenet by David Braben (on alt.fan.elite) between 97-99 (I can't remember) the exact date.

    Seeing Kinect Disneyland Adventures, The Outsider and Elite 4 in the same article just looks wrong to me.

  • RodHull #24 10 months ago

    Hopefully they'll make a mint on the Disney game so they can bankroll Elite 4. Can't wait to attack a space station in me viper again. Take that, space police!

  • Tryhard #25 10 months ago

    Elite was where real astronauts earned their wings.

  • snowdog #26 10 months ago

    Elite is the best game ever made. MAKE IT HAPPEN NAO!!!!!

  • SvennoJ #27 10 months ago

    Manually docking on space stations and landing on planets was amazing in Elite 3. Speeding up the time and watching the sun and stars move from different planets or trying to get into something resembling a stable orbit was great fun.
    It was so much better then all the space flight games that came after where you seem to be moving through water instead of in space.
    Currently there is only universe sandbox. Off to send another black hole though the solar system.

  • Whizzo #28 10 months ago

    Elite IV will finally be released the day Thargoids turn out to be real and they destroy the Earth.

  • Uncompetative #29 10 months ago

    Little Big Planet provided the tools for an enthusiastic community to make "many interesting places to visit". Halo 3's Forge did the same in 3D. If Reach let you set initial enemy spawn positions, bounding boxes and patrol paths you could create your own cooperative Campaigns within its Firefight mode.

    So why doesn't Frontier get its fans to build Elite IV's galaxy?

    They could even host space-stations / planets / cities on licensed web servers, making money from selling the "forging tools", collections of prefabricated objects to kitbash and the physical simulation of the universe - including space craft, weapons and electronic systems built from components a bit like Technical LEGO.

    Personally, I'd favour an exploration of potentially hostile bot-filled alien worlds over some wretched Eve Online PvP thing. Raid a location with your friends, in a separate "instance" from that seen by another party. Kind of half-like Dungeon Keeper:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper

  • Mashum #30 10 months ago

    I know I'm confusing Braben with Woakes but what about a Mercenary/Damocles remake, I miss Benson's cheeky comments!

  • obscured021 #31 10 months ago

    Id love to see an new elite, but people are to dumb in this day and age of accessibility to play it, look at eve=-online alot of players can't get past the first few hours as they say its to complex.

  • Smoped #32 10 months ago

    Considering the quality of Elite "2" & "3", Braben should just forget about it. Either he needs Ian Bell or he's just forgotten how to make good games.

  • MisterM #33 10 months ago

    @jefranklin18 "Actually it was first mentioned on Usenet by David Braben (on alt.fan.elite) between 97-99 (I can't remember) the exact date. "

    Uh huh. That's cool and all, but I'm referring to when he announced to staff that they were about to start actually making it. Thanks for chipping in though, I'm sure you've somehow topped my story here.

  • TexMurphy01 #34 10 months ago

    Mention Elite 4 when attention is needed for some other piece of shit. Classy move, Braben, but you're long since out of excuses.