Exclusive: Elite IV Confirmed For PS3

Back in May I saw that one of our ever resourceful readers, Tuffcub, had posted in the forums about a little meeting of industry heads in my home town. How could I not go? Whilst I didn’t exactly know what to expect it turned out to be totally worth the effort. It brought forth some really interesting thoughts which I’ll be letting you all know about later on in the week.

elite-iv-watermark

Get to the good stuff, right? I will, however it does require a small explanation. You see, one of the speakers at the lecture was none other than the much loved co creator of the original Elite and Chairman of Frontier, David Braben (you whippersnappers might have to do some googling). I have the slideshows that accompanied his very entertaining talk and in the section introducing himself, as if he needs to, he details that Elite IV, the often dismissed sequel is set to release on the PC, the 360 and, as you might have guessed, the PS3.

This is, of course, great news as back in the day Elite was one of the most forward thinking concepts out there. A huge chunk of the games industry will quite happily admit that some of the roots of many current strategy genres owe Elite big time. We have no clue as to when Elite IV will surface but it’s bound to be under wraps untill Frontier have The Outsider in the bag, which, as a side note, I’m most definitely looking forward to.

Oh, and here’s hoping that ‘more lost winds’ comes our way too.

Tagged with: David Braben Elite IV Frontier

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51 Comments

Newer Comments

Watchful (Staff)
Member since: Oct 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:10

Fingers firmly crossed. Spent far too much time playing Elite (BBC and Speccy) and Elite Plus (PC).
Kevling (1446 TSA Points)
Member since: Dec 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:17

Through the wrong choice of 8-bit home computer, the original Elite passed me by, but I spent many many hours in Frontier on the Amiga, so am really excited about this. It’s been said that Elite 4 has been in the works for ages, but it’s good to know it’s coming to consoles too…
- cc_star (Community Manager)
  Member since: Forever
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:32
  
  You bypassed the Speccy?
  
  Shame on you
  - Kevling (1446 TSA Points)
    Member since: Dec 2008
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:19
    
    Yes, my Mum though to a good idea to buy an Atari 400, mainly because we had a VCS before.
  - gnipper (409 TSA Points)
    Member since: May 2009
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:19
    
    Or C64? or BBC?
  - Severn2j (680 TSA Points)
    Member since: Aug 2008
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:36
    
    I bypassed the Speccy.. We had a C64 instead.
DarthSharkey (1009 TSA Points)
Member since: Feb 2009
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:27

I have never played Elite but did hear lots and lots about it, looking forward to finally getting a chance to play one now.
gnipper (409 TSA Points)
Member since: May 2009
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:42

Elite and Frontier are my two favourite games ever EVER. Im SO excited about this – I just hope they dont dumb it down (which is a danger these days)….

This has made my day
Shrui (190 TSA Points)
Member since: Aug 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:45

Its a shame, no matter how good it is this will get crushed by expectation of all those who grew up on some version of Elite or other.

If it does make it then lets hope its not another PS3 version of Fallout 3!
Lanselta (244 TSA Points)
Member since: Forever
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 09:55

Awesome news! A successfull MMO would be a tough challenge for this type of genre, but the payoff would be as game as special as Elite itself. Imagine trading with other players in live time, building industries and trade routes, establishing syndicates. We could make our own TSA trade federation.

Anyone jonesing for this type of play now (only one player though) should checkout X2 or X3 for PC. Some great stuff there, and a great online community.
- Watchful (Staff)
  Member since: Oct 2008
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:10
  
  Or try EVE Online.
  - dillonradio (52 TSA Points)
    Member since: Forever
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:19
    
    Elite was my favourite game ever (I played the Amiga version) but I just couldn’t get into Eve Online…
  - Lanselta (244 TSA Points)
    Member since: Forever
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:00
    
    Ahh, I’ve never looked into Eve. I maintain a policy of not playing games which require a paid subscription. Im sure its a blast, and thanks for the correction
Roarster (148 TSA Points)
Member since: Sep 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:09

Kind of lost interest in Elite after the super buggy sequels. Wonder if they’ll have to send a floppy disk with a patch out to everyone again?
Tuffcub (Staff)
Member since: Dec 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:10

Yay!
mcphatty (248 TSA Points)
Member since: Sep 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:27

Christ, this will be brilliant, I can’t wait!! The lost genre of space-trading sims finally returns with a bang… and by this sweeping statement I acknowledge that I’m ignoring every game released under that banner since Elite, hah.
Hodgi92 (697 TSA Points)
Member since: Forever
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 10:48

Cool
- theshockwave (1122 TSA Points)
  Member since: Nov 2008
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:51
  
  I presume that you, like me, also haven’t a clue what has been said up there.
BryOnRye (667 TSA Points)
Member since: Jan 2009
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:12

Elite is where I first learned about narcotics!
- gnipper (409 TSA Points)
  Member since: May 2009
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 13:10
  
  LOL yeah, it was where I discovered Slaves…
willow-mouse (7 TSA Points)
Member since: May 2009
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:13

Now this is literally the first news I’ve heard about the PS3 that’s got me excited. I’ve been wanting a Freelancer-esque game for ages, ever since I had Frontier on the Amiga 600.

Bring it on!
double-o-dave (491 TSA Points)
Member since: Nov 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:32

You can’t be the original on the speccy.
I didn’t even know there was an Elite 2 and 3.
- Kevling (1446 TSA Points)
  Member since: Dec 2008
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:36
  
  Frontier was subtitled Elite II, so I guess technically, Frontier 2 was Elite 3?
  - Watchful (Staff)
    Member since: Oct 2008
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:39
    
    Yeah. Elite, Frontier: Elite II then Frontier: First Encounters.
  - gnipper (409 TSA Points)
    Member since: May 2009
    Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 13:11
    
    Yeah, they intended to release FFE as “Elite 3″ I think, but it got bogged down in other stuff that was going on and got released in a bit of a buggy mess. Frontier is still the one to beat for me.
- Watchful (Staff)
  Member since: Oct 2008
  Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:36
  
  You mean the original on the BBC Micro.
Severn2j (680 TSA Points)
Member since: Aug 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 11:41

While great news, Elite IV has been on the cards about as long as Duke Nukem Forever, so gawd knows when it will actually appear.. I’ve been looking forward to a decent succsessor to Elite for decades (literally!) and there still isnt a contender. Freelancer came about the closest I think, but it was much smaller in scale.

It says a lot about a game that its still unbeaten in its genre, even tho it was released in 1984!
double-o-dave (491 TSA Points)
Member since: Nov 2008
Posted on: 16/06/2009 at 12:09

Well if it has exactly the same style gameplay as the first and your roaming around large empty areas of space, when you do encounter other spacecrafts or get close to a planet, in heinseit the graphics should be amazing!

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