The ongoing pandemic has claimed another delay as the highly anticipated Elite Dangerous: Odyssey expansion is pushed back on PC and console.
Space (trucker) simulator and Star Citizen competitor Elite Dangerous has had its highly-anticipated, transformative expansion, Odyssey, delayed until “late Spring 2021” for PC and “Autumn 2021” for consoles.
The expansion threatens a No Man’s Sky-worthy update of additions with on-foot exploration of planets, first-person combat, refreshed visuals, social hubs, NPC missions, thousands of new settlements, and more on the way.
The universe-trotting paid-expansion was anticipated to arrive early 2021 on both PC and consoles, but UK studio Frontier Developments cites the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and local lockdowns for the announced delays:
“The ongoing impact of the pandemic … continues to put added pressure on our teams and ultimately our development timeline,” Frontier said in a statement. “We have therefore had to make the difficult decision to make some adjustments and changes to our existing development roadmap.
“Please do know that these difficult decisions have been made with a focus on making Odyssey as incredible as it can possibly be for all our Commanders regardless of their platform, while also respecting realistic project deadlines for our teams during this difficult global situation.”
Odyssey is by no means alone here. It continues to be a time of delays in games and beyond, due to the ongoing pandemic forcing teams into unfamiliar remote working setups and otherwise disrupting all of our lives in a major way.
On this occasion, console players are going to take the bigger hit. Elite Dangerous Odyssey Deluxe Alpha and Lifetime Expansion Pass holders on PC will get to set foot first in an early version of the expansion to test the game ahead of its PC launch in late spring 2021. The official PC release – through player feedback – will help inform the eventual console versions on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, now due in Autumn 2021.
Meanwhile, the Horizons expansion released all the way back in 2015 continues to be free. It may not be the final frontier you were hoping to play in early 2021, but there’s still plenty to cover. Less than 1% of the Elite Dangerous galaxy has been explored – let’s aim for 1% by Autumn, eh?
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