Elite Dangerous Wiki

In 1984, the video game Elite, created by David Braben and Ian Bell, released to the public. It quickly became one of the most successful and influential space simulator games of all time. The sequel, Frontier: Elite II, was published by Gametek in 1993. Braben established Frontier Developments in 1994. In 1995, Frontier Developments released Frontier: First Encounters, also known as "Elite III". Both Frontier titles are famous for their 1:1 scale, dynamic star systems, realistic physics, and seamless freeform planetary landings.

Frontier announced plans to create a fourth game in the legendary Elite series in 2012. Crowdfunding began on Kickstarter for Elite Dangerous (ED) the same year. Backers could test the alpha and beta versions of ED during development. The full PC version launched on 18 December 2014.

The initial year had free post-launch content updates. In season 2, the first paid expansion Elite Dangerous: Horizons released on 15 December 2015. The game was subsequently ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Season 3 began on 27 February 2018 with Elite Dangerous: Beyond which had a year of free updates for Horizons owners. Additional free updates, most notably the Fleet Carriers Update, were released for all players over the course of 2019 and 2020.

Since 27 October 2020, all content of Horizons and Beyond are included for free with Elite Dangerous.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, the second paid expansion, released for PC on 19 May 2021. Odyssey received over 18 free updates with major content, features and improvements.