Hello, Commander,
Welcome to Elite Dangerous Newsletter #80.
This week, we're recovering after an E3 in which we released Elite Dangerous on Xbox One, announced Planet Coaster for PC, and revealed an all-new way to play Elite Dangerous in Close Quarters Combat.
The newsletter is back after a week in Los Angeles, with a roundup of our time at E3, a look at the new instant-action PVP mode coming to Elite Dangerous and a peek at the tweaked Federal Fighter as we prepare to put you in its cockpit.
As always, you can hear the latest news and updates directly from the development team on our Forums, Twitter, Facebook and right here in the newsletter every week, and we're always eager to hear your feedback. Have a great weekend!
Frontier @ E3
Last week Frontier attended E3 in Los Angeles. Our booth was placed just above the west hall, keeping clear of the deafening noise of the show floor, and for three days we entertained press with presentations, interviews, and hands-on demos for PC and Xbox One.
The show began for real on Tuesday, but Frontier was up early on Monday morning to release Elite Dangerous for Xbox One in the Game Preview Program, Xbox One's version of early access.
Elite Dangerous for Xbox One is available now but still in development, and is available at a reduced price during the Game Preview. It's similar to how we launched Elite Dangerous on PC, with the cut-price Mercenary Edition for pre-orders.
And we're offering another deal. Existing PC and Mac players can pick up Elite Dangerous for Xbox One and receive a £5 voucher for the Frontier Store.
Once the Game Preview stage ends, everyone already playing the Preview release on Xbox One will automatically transfer to the finished game for no additional cost.
At E3 we spent the week talking to press about Elite Dangerous for PC, Mac and Xbox One, and Frontier CEO David Braben appeared on Twitch, IGN, Microsoft and Gamespot's livestreams from the show, with Ambassador Kerrash doing the piloting behind the scenes.
Kerrash was our lone British Ambassador, joining the American team consisting of Ambassadors Anderson DeGrear, Shazbot, FifthHorseman and Rezri. A big thanks to all of them for helping us show the game at its very best.
Our booth was host to livestreams by Bad News Baron and IAmSp00n, too, giving players around the world a window into our E3 show.
It was a huge week for Frontier, rounded off by The Guinness Book Of Records stopping by to award Elite "Longest Running Space Simulation Series." We've been around since 1984 and we're proud of it.
The next stop on Frontier's tour will be Gamescom. We'll be in Cologne, Germany at the beginning of August with more to talk about and a showfloor presence everyone is welcome to attend - not just press.
We'll have networked CQC playable on Xbox One on the showfloor, and a massive PC setup with VR headsets and 4K displays, and that's just the start. We'll have more surprises to come so we hope newsletter readers can make it.
Introducing CQC
At E3 we announced our new PVP mode, Close Quarters Combat. CQC is coming to Elite Dangerous for PC, Mac and Xbox One later this year, for free.
CQC goes beyond our original vision for Elite Dangerous. It's a new PVP mode accessed from the main menu, launching you into instant combat on custom maps in twelve-player Free For All Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag (in the Xbox One Game Preview beta).
Last week we revealed the trailer and spoke with CQC's designers, James Stimpson and Dan Davies. We also showed five minutes of CQC gameplay behind closed doors to press. You can catch a glimpse of that footage in Microsoft's E3 Daily show here (at 31:50).
The map on show is Orbital Junction and the ship is the new player-piloted F63 Falcon. It's one of the three ships you can fly in the CQC Xbox One beta and you can read all about them in James and Dan's interview.
If you're playing on PC or Mac, don't worry. CQC is coming this year and it's free. CQC is being made by a dedicated team of PC, Mac and Xbox One players too, and we don't want anyone left out of the fight.
The Elite Dangerous team is bigger than ever, and the majority are working on something secret for PC and Mac. It's not quite ready for the world just yet, but we'll be able to tell you more at Gamescom. Believe us: we can hardly wait.
Peek of the week
A render of the new modified F63 Condor Federal Fighter. The Condor has seen some minor modifications for player control in CQC, and the new version will replace the existing Federal Fighter in the open galaxy later this year as an AI-piloted craft.
Comms Chatter
Commander Asayanami Dei ended up stuck between a rock and a hard place. Get lost in space with the commander on our forums here.
Over on the Elite Dangerous subreddit, cobbman11 shows off some Elite Dangerous screenshots with a twist.
Commander ChaosWulff on has been documenting his progress, happenings, and developments in the Elite Dangerous galaxy. Check out his YouTube channel.
And finally, members of the community have created a new subreddit devoted to Elite Dangerous for Xbox One. Aptly named, EliteOne.