Elite Dangerous[a] is a space flight simulation game developed and published by Frontier Developments. Piloting a spaceship, the player explores a realistic 1:1 scale open-world representation of the Milky Way galaxy, with the gameplay being open-ended. The game is the first in the series to attempt massively multiplayer gameplay, with players’ actions affecting the narrative story of the game’s persistent universe, while also retaining a single-player mode. Elite Dangerous is the fourth game in the Elite video game series, one of the longest-running video game franchises. It is the sequel to Frontier: First Encounters,[8] released in 1995.
Having been unable to agree to a funding deal with a publisher for many years, Frontier began its Kickstarter campaign in November 2012. Pre-release test versions of the game had been available to backers since December 2013, and the final game was released for Windows in December 2014,[4] with the macOS version later released in May 2015.
A “preview” version of the game for Xbox One was later released via the Xbox Game Preview Program in June 2015 during Microsoft’s briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015,9,10 and was fully released in October 2015,11 while a PlayStation 4 version was released on 27 June 2017. Elite Dangerous additionally supports all PC virtual reality devices.12,13 By the end of April 2015, Elite Dangerous had sold over 500,000 copies, with Frontier Developments expected to generate £22 million from sales.14 As of 15 January 2019, cumulative sales of Elite Dangerous exceeded 4.3 million franchise units, composed of 3 million base game units and 1.3 million Horizons expansion units.15