Last year, Frontier Developments secured £1.5 million on Kickstarter to develop a new sequel in its Elite series of space sims. Although one of the main features of the promised game was online and offline single player campaigns, the company has decided to drop the offline mode completely less than a month before launch.
"Going forwards, being online lets us constantly both curate and evolve the galaxy, with stories unfolding according to the actions of commanders," series creator David Braben argued in the game's latest newsletter. "Exploration is also a key factor, too, and it is important that what a single player explores matches what other players explore whether single or multiplayer - a complex, coherent world - something we have achieved. Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy. A fully offline experience would be unacceptably limited and static compared to the dynamic, ever unfolding experience we are delivering."
Needless to say, backers are not pleased with this decision. A is full of angry comments as well with a Frontier representative saying nothing beyond: "We'll be offering refunds on a case by case basis, more information on that soon."
Elite: Dangerous will launch on December 16th, 2014.
In September 2014, KickStarter updated its terms of use to stipulate that "the creator must complete the project and fulfill each reward." Unfortunately, we are not sure the new rules apply to Elite: Dangerous as it has reached its funding goal in January 2013.
