Elite IV in this generation?

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 October, 2007

Pops up on a Braben slide.

Reports from this week's GameCity festival suggested that Frontier's David Braben had talked about - gosh gosh gosh - Elite IV!

Surprised to discover this, we got in touch with GamesIndustry.biz' Matt Martin, who is up there at the moment covering events, and who has already reported on Braben's speech at the festival, to find out what happened.

Well, said Matt, in comments so profane and unpublishable that you'd think he didn't like us and which we're forced to paraphrase, he didn't mention Elite IV directly, but a slide shown had a list of current projects, one of which was "Elite IV, PC, PS3, Xbox 360".

So, Braben reckons it is still happening, and will be out in this generation - along with recently released Thrillville: Off The Rails and The Outsider, details on both of which you can catch up with in our recent David Braben interview, of all things.

As for Elite IV, Wikipedia does a fine job of cataloguing various sightings and comments on its status, although seems happy to lead on the commonly held belief that it had slipped into the realms of vapourware.

Judging by Braben's slides, it might not be. Excited?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (47) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Gojira #1 4 years ago

    Not really.

  • That_Happy_Cat #2 4 years ago

    nah

  • LetsGo #3 4 years ago

    Nope.

  • mkreku #4 4 years ago

    YESS!!! HOLY FUCKING CRAP, YES!!

  • Les #5 4 years ago

    Let's hope it won't make this terribly underpowered wasted gen. An Elite IV would deserve better.

  • Orange #6 4 years ago

    Elite has had its day. Nothing to see here.

  • Kropotkin #7 4 years ago

    Currently resides in the same mystical store shelf as Duke Nukem Forever, Gran Tourismo on the PSP, Alan Wake and Team Fortress 2....oh wait, forget that last one, that actually appeared eventually!

  • syphaa #8 4 years ago

    I was at the Braben seminar yesterday in Notts.

    To be honest, I cannot remember there being any visual peak of said Elite IV on a slide in his presentation. There was quite a big showcase of his new project "The Outsider" which could turn out as quite a top quality title. Still looked a bit rough around the edges.

    It was funny when he basically told us all that all gaming related education courses are way behind the times and are not producing the skills that the industry leaders are looking for. The uproar/murmurs in the auditorium were comical!

    All the students who had attended his talk were really pissed off that he basically, in a round about way, told them that they are wasting their time on the courses they are on.

    All in all it was an interesting talk.
    But he is quite old school in his methods.

  • hidden_asbestos #9 4 years ago

    Why not just play X3 instead?

  • mkreku #10 4 years ago

    Alan Wake? It's not vapourware, it's just being made by Remedy. Whenever they have an official release date, take that date and add a year and you're close to the real release date. That's how they work.

  • wattoo #11 4 years ago

    Nope, not any more.

  • Fab4 #12 4 years ago

    I used to love playing Elite when I was younger...much younger.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #13 4 years ago

    10 GOTO Barnards Star
    20 Trade
    30 GOTO Sol
    40 Trade
    50 GOTO 10 FOR five hours

    60 Play game

  • Les #14 4 years ago

    @ redneon

    You do know that in BASIC you'd never get to 60, don't you? ;)

  • spud71 #15 4 years ago

    I never understood why Elite was so good to play. I must admit i was a Star Wars fan though.

  • mechamonkey #16 4 years ago

    There is no way this game could possibly ever live up to the hype it will generate.

  • GitSomE_UK #17 4 years ago

    Never going to happen, it's been, gone and we have all moved on.
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 13:38

  • Macross #18 4 years ago

    Oh god yes please, time to finally blow the dust off the X52 for something worthwhile. Fingers crossed!!!!

  • abdallah #19 4 years ago

    Wohoo! Stop making all those shit games about circuses and focus on Elite 4.

  • Rirekon #20 4 years ago

    Such old news, saw that same slide at GDC Brighton earlier in the year.
    Get with the times EG ;-)

  • agparrot #21 4 years ago

    Hmm, the wiki says Newtonian physics.

    Now, I'd be as interested as anyone to see another Elite game, but all that slingshot stuff from having 'realistic' physics and the fuel and time-warping 'features' from Elites 2 and 3 basically stopped it being any fun as a game.

    in my humble opinion, obviously.

    The first Elite was probably the first that demanded my ongoing attention in an open-world kinda way, and despite it being somewhat formulaic and repetitive - as games generally are, anyway - there was something groovy about actually attaining Elite status. Busting Thargoids, trading stuff up, edging fuel scoops on long-haul journeys, bounty hunting Pirates in dangerous systems and balancing filling the hold with collecting booty along the way...

    Darkened room and a Kempston Joystick Interface was all a boy needed on his 48k Spectrum version.

    Jesus. 48k of memory from which I squeezed months of gaming joy from Elite alone. Young people today... you don't know you are born! etc. etc.

  • Turrican #22 4 years ago

    Unless he's got a crack development team around him he'll struggle to create a next-gen Elite game with the depth of X3, or Eve online.

    I suppose the holy grail of planetfall and full npc interaction would make a new Elite stand out from the others, along with a compelling and varied 'living' feel (X3 lacks this).

    Stay away from online though, Eve has got too big a headstart (and there will be others, like Black Prophecy from German developers Reakktor)

  • paulf #23 4 years ago

    is it April 1st already?

  • Bumhug360 #24 4 years ago

    "Stay away from online though, Eve has got too big a headstart (and there will be others, like Black Prophecy from German developers Reakktor)"

    Blizzard could of been told to stay away from doing World of Warcraft as Everquest had too big a headstart and look what happend there.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #25 4 years ago

    @Les: Ok, mr pedantic. Would this be more appropriate:

    Station *pStation = &m_Stations[BARNARDS_STAR];

    while (m_bBeginningOfGame == true) {
    FlyTo(pStation);
    TradeStuff();
    pStation = pStation == &m_Stations[BARNARDS_STAR] ? &m_Stations[SOL] : &m_Stations[BARNARDS_STAR];

    if (GetTickCount() >= 18000000) //Yes, this is the value for five hours, children.
    m_bBeginningOfGame = false;
    }

    PlayRestOfGame();


    Gah! No formatting. Damn you Eurogamer!
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 16:12

  • wobbly_Bob #26 4 years ago

    After playing "Thrillville" demo I'm not sure I am.

  • Fitzmogwai #27 4 years ago

    I gave up waiting for Elite IV - what? - three years ago? So, much as I'd like it to happen, I'll only believe it when I have a boxed copy clutched in my sweaty palm.

  • Pablo2k5 #28 4 years ago

    "Why not just play X3 instead?"

    Erm.. because it was rubbish?

  • Wyrm #29 4 years ago

    We have Eve and X3 already thanks.

  • YourMessageHere #30 4 years ago

    Excited? No, but cautiously optimistic. If this works like Elite did, which is to say you have direct spacecraft control (unlike Eve's totally point and click approach) and plenty of NPCs, I can see it being a very viable online alternative to Eve. And the X games were no good.

  • smelly #31 4 years ago

    NOT DAVID BRABEN!!!

    Ian Bell version please!

    (remembers how braben screwed up frontier)

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #32 4 years ago

    @smelly: Oi! We'll have none of that around here.

    Frontier was a much better game than Elite. It's my favourite game of all time, so my opinion on the subject may well be biased, but from my experiece the only people who prefer Elite are middle class crusty nerds who get some kind of elitist (pun most definitely intended) kick from informing everyone that they had a BBC micro back in "the day" and the combat was far superior.

  • smelly #33 4 years ago

    >Frontier was a much better game than Elite

    But too buggy to actually play

  • bunglebonce #34 4 years ago

    I would have probably got into X3 a lot more if it wasn't so relatively spec-hungry and ran like a pig on my PC at the time. I was sad that the proposed 360 port never made it, either.

    I don't see a new Elite game coming soon if Braben is concentrating on The Outsider.
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 19:45

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #35 4 years ago

    @smelly: No, that was First Encounters =o)

  • Les #36 4 years ago

    "@Les: Ok, mr pedantic. Would this be more appropriate:"

    Yes, thank you ;)

  • smelly #37 4 years ago

    >@smelly: No, that was First Encounters =o)

    hmmm.. maybe i got mixed up then..

    I remember a modern day elite which just plain sucked.. maybe i meant that..

  • AOFanboi #38 4 years ago

    EVE does not match the ideas of Elite as well as Vendetta Online does. EVE is spreadsheet, Vendetta is dodge and aim all the way baby!

    For single player there is an open-source Elite implementation called Oolite.

  • estoo #39 4 years ago

    Please please please make this happen! Imagine it as an MMO like WoW with the RPG elements, would be freakin amazin! Oh, and how about Frontier for XBLA, would pay many MS points for a tarted up version of the Amiga classic!

  • TheJuriel #40 4 years ago

    Oh, I hope something comes out of this...

  • Walshicus #41 4 years ago

    As someone who did London-Mars Orbital in real time without autopilot and actually enjoyed it, I think you're all mad for not being more enthused about this. The third game was great, though not as great relative to the second as the second was to the first... yeah. Didn't get any bugs when I played though, so maybe that's unusual.

  • ph101 #42 4 years ago

    Sure, it would be nice. Having waited a long time for frontier a long time ago though - and being a bit let down, i have learnt my lesson.

  • GrandpaUlrira #43 4 years ago

    There was Elite, Frontier Elite (a bug-ridden mess), and ...?

    Anyway, it's hard to give a shit.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #44 4 years ago

    Frontier: Elite II wasn't particularly buggy. Nothing that would be immediately obvious anyway.

    Elite III: First Encounters, however, was ridiculously buggy. It was pulled off the shelves almost immediately because it was practically unplayable. I believe you can download an updated (fixed) version of it from the Frontier Developments website. I haven't played it much myself, to be honest.

  • zedzee #45 4 years ago

    Releasing a new Elite game is going to be rather a difficult decision, even for Mr Braben.

    I got the first BBC Micro Model B tape version when it came out and although it took about 25 minutes to load, it was absolutely magic. The wire-frame ships, the trading element, the splitting of the display into 2 different resolution modes and of course squeezing all of that into about 16KB RAM was just a fantastic achievement.

    So, how can that be topped? Seriously? I mean, if he goes for something all modern, will the original's gameplay be lost? If he sticks to the old formula, will new gamers get bored with it and say "it's not long enough" or "it doesn't have any depth"?

    I think the success of that first release was unique. It was a set of circumstances and timing that can (probably) not be repeated again. The Volkswagen Beetle is a classic but just because there's a new model of it, has it captured the old look and feel?

    I don't know, perhaps more emphasis should be placed on trying to capture that old formula again but I do hope it will get developed.

  • infoxicated #46 4 years ago

    I was at David's seminar at the Game Developers Conference back in July and at the end when he was fielding questions I was desperate to ask him "where the fuck is Elite, man?"

    I figured it would be disrespectful to ask, seeing as he wasn't there to talk about it, but with the way he seems to drop a teaser every so often and then dodge the issue I wish I'd had the stones to just stand up and ask the question.

    About four years ago the jobs page on Frontier Development's website said "you will be working on lots of exciting games, yes - including Elite." So where is it, then?

    I know Elite isn't quite at Duke Nukem Forever levels of lore/vapourware, but it cant be far off.

  • CatWeazle #47 4 years ago

    FOFT FTW