Elite Dangerous developer Frontier Developments has announced that Horizons, the first major season of expansions for the game, will be made free and included with the base game next month. Elite Dangerous was initially released back in 2014 for the PC and was subsequently released on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with the console versions receiving generally positive reviews. Horizons was the first major season of expansions for the game and included several major updates that included new features that significantly expanded the game.
Launched in 2015, Horizons added planetary landing, a new alien race, multicrew ships, and more. Horizons was then followed by the Beyond season of updates that launched in 2018. Most recently, Elite Dangerous introduced fleet carriers, massive player-owned starships that are capable of hosting up to 16 smaller ships. Those who purchase a fleet carrier, which is priced at a whopping 5 billion in-game credits, will be able to charge other players who choose to dock their ship in the carrier and avail of its many possible services such as repair docks, refueling stations, shipyards and more.
According to the announcement from Frontier Developments, Horizons will be incorporated into the base game for free on all platforms starting October 27. Those who have previously purchased Elite Dangerous but not Horizons will receive an update once the expansion becomes free while those who have already purchased Horizons will receive an exclusive Azure paint job that players can use on all the 41 ships currently available in the game. Players who want to grab the Horizons owner rewards will still be able to purchase the expansion until October 26.
The developer added that the decision to make Horizons into a free expansion is largely due to the upcoming release of the game’s next major expansion, Odyssey, which will introduce a first-person shooter element into the game, which may be similar to Star Citizen’s Squadron 42 mode. As for the updates released in the Beyond season, including the aforementioned fleet carriers, they are already free for anyone with the base game or Horizons. Frontier Developments have also recently launched a new multi-arc narrative for the game that will extend beyond the launch of the Odyssey expansion next year.
Including the Horizons season of expansions with the base game will definitely help more players either get into or stick with Elite Dangerous as they no longer have to worry about purchasing multiple expansions when Odyssey releases next year. Hopefully the announcement will encourage more players to get into the game to help keep its universe alive and thriving. It’s also impressive how much content the team at Frontier Developments are working on for the game while also working on the upcoming real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar franchise from Games Workshop.