Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is a new update to the space-faring simulator which is slated to arrive sometime in early 2021. If you were hoping to explore distant worlds in VR, this time on-foot, you’ll be waiting a bit longer than flatscreen players.

“Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will not be VR-compatible at launch,” Tim Smith, Frontier Community Manager says in an official forum post. “We’re big fans of VR and we are truly proud of the amazing experience that we currently offer in Elite Dangerous. However, the new gameplay, mechanics and features that will be introduced with Elite Dangerous: Odyssey means that we had to re-examine if we could deliver that same experience without compromise, which, for launch, means Odyssey will not be VR-compatible.”

Additionally, Smith says that base building is “not currently on the roadmap for Elite Dangerous.”

Planned features do however include on-foot exploration, new planetary tech, social hubs, and combat, some of which can be seen in the new trailer.

Up until now, all paid expansions for Elite Dangerous have included VR support, likely because they were either ship or vehicle-based and didn’t require an entirely new movement scheme that a first-person, embodied game might.

Still, the studio hasn’t outright said VR support isn’t coming, so there may still be hope. In any case, you can now wishlist Elite Dangerous: Odyssey on Steam. There’s no pricing info yet, although Frontier has at very least confirmed that Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will have it for free when it launches in early 2021.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Adrian Meredith

    Pretty disappointing as even when they do it, it will likely be an afterthought and poorly supported

  • I won’t be buying anything else from Frontier until we get an official confirmation that VR is here to stay, including promised support for new updates. Very frustrating.

  • Ron

    Been playing in VR for years now. For me, no sense in upgrading if I can’t play it in VR. I just can’t go back to flat screen.

    • I stopped playing flat games ages ago and everyone should encourage people not to support flat games so gaming companies are forced to “follow the money” to better game interfaces, namely vr.

      • Gil Blevins

        Not everyone can afford VR equipment jackass.

      • Jorge Gustavo

        I love my Rift CV1 but no way I will stop playing traditional flat games. Last day I played an 16 bit sidescroller before my blade and sorcery session. I am currently playing Blade And Sorcery (always) and Half Life Alyx on VR and Valfaris and Bayonetta 2 on my switch. And I am still playing Sekiro on my PC. VR is not a replacement for traditional gaming.

    • Golgot

      For what it’s worth there’s a push going now to get very basic VR
      Legs at launch. (To go with the VR ships & SRVs we’re now getting).

      Drop by and add your support if it takes your fancy :)

      Allow the VR ‘2D screen’ to be disabled

  • Alextended

    Frak that noise. Do VR with standard mouse & keyboard/gamepad controls @ launch, it takes next to nothing to implement. Then work on offering proper hand tracked gameplay like other VR FPS games (or even NMS) some time later (but not never).

  • Kyokushin

    This game mostly sold VR as as system. That was one of first games with VR support and now is going to retire from suport in new expansion. People had old Dk2’s, cardboars, smartphones to feel how is to be the starfighter pilot.

    Now Elite is won’t support it in the expansion. No VR = NO DEAL.

    Iam playing the Elite since the beginning in 2014… and last two yers in VR only.
    its HUGE disappointment.

  • Classic building future content without considering the sheer volume of vr players. Hopefully star citizen aren’t so short sighted.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    NO VR = NO ELITE DANGEROUS FOR ME :( :( :(

  • blue5peed

    NO man’s sky was able to figure it out why can’t Frontier? they have real pedigree at that studio are they even trying?

  • big F

    No VR no deal. Smells like the usual FDev excuses to me.
    Been playing this since Beta and in VR as soon as the DK2 arrived. Even with my 4k monitors 2d does not cut it.

    Whats the bet by mid 2021 they say they cant do it or want to charge VR players extra for it.

    • Maybe they figured out VR players have no money left over to pay for useless cosmetics.

      That’s what ED is for FDev now, a marketplace for insanely expensive skins.

    • Walluwiigiiuehuehueh

      he predicted it. Incredible.

  • antonio mora

    Yesterday I was drooling at the trailer and now this.

    I’m out.

  • DickDastardly

    Absolutely disgusted by Frontier’s lack of vision regarding future VR support and won’t be spending another penny in their store until this idiotic decision is reversed. I’m also seriously considering asking for a refund for my lifetime pass. I paid to support a VR game, not some pancake rubbish.

  • Holger Fischer

    It will be no easy task, if you consider people using VR and a motion simulator to make them step out of it and pick up their controllers for ‘on foot’ missions. It would be somewhat immersive though. I will not support games that drop their VR support – yes, I am looking at you ‘Subnautica – Below Zero’.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    I knew there was a reason I stopped playing Elite.Not to support vr after vr is mainstream.

  • ymo1965

    No VR, No buy. Makes no odds to me.

  • Dan Lokemoen

    Elite Dangerous will probably become more popular when the Star Citizen donors realize that there is never going to be more development on Star Citizen.

    • Pablo C

      I love Elite, but really, even in its current alpha state, SC is way more advanced. I would be perfectly happy if SC would stop as it is now. Surely, after fixing all alpha issues, but I don´t think a bigger universe is really needed. SC is the only space game where you go from your bed, to a huge city, to the subway, to your ship, to space, to hyperspace, to a planet or base, without switching perspectives in all your trip. That makes it trully immersive and it has the feeling of a game from the future. As much as I love Elite, it wont make it that far.

    • Joe Blobers

      Are you okay Dan? You jump on each article to pretend SC is dead and have no more development…. We have seen haters over years with their scam and ponzi but never one pretending the +600 devs are a dream or that incoming 3.10 new patch ins few weeks won’t exist.

      You reach a new level by your own :)

      Note: I am also an ED backer with life free update.

      A suggestion: Space games lovers can enjoy different games without hating others or provide false information anyone can decipher in seconds.

  • sntxrrr

    This is terrible. They show no commitment to support VR in future iterations of this game that I have been playing for 6 years, starting with a DK2.
    I understand the challenge of supporting VR locomotion combined with simultaneous desktop locomotion but stripping existing VR support in cockpit mode from the game is a crime that will probably kill this game for me.

  • Brad

    They also said that that PSVR wouldn’t be supported at the launch of the PS4 version, and PSVR support never materialized. So I’m not holding my breath. Dealbreaker.

  • Brad

    Honestly I never expected “space legs” to support VR, which is why I have never been interested in space legs. I don’t need or want motion controller support. I don’t even need the on-foot portion of the game to be in VR. I just want them to bring the render engine updates, the atmospheric planets, and whatever else that’s new for ships to come to VR. But it doesn’t sound like that’s on the table.

  • 1Bigfoot1

    There is enough of those flat space shooters or flat games in general. If this game can not provide VR I can live without this DLC and play something else. This game has the opportunity to be amazing and I hope it will be.

  • Raphael

    Think about it this way… Frontier has a history of making some pretty stupid decisions and then regretting it. Examples being the intention release full price seasonal updates, more recently the bizarre intention to make carriers insanely expensive to buy and maintain. So this latest revelation is in keeping with their poor decisions. They shock everyone with news of space legs and then ruin it by saying “f*ck you VR users”. They make some lame excuse (actually a generic excuse used by a few other devs who dropped VR) about not doing it because it would need to be done right. Translation: “we’re oblivious to the trends and progress made in VR games and oblivious to the fact that Hello Games managed to transform a pancake space game into a full VR experience including walkies.

    • They don’t regret those decisions though, not really, they barely acknowledge their failures.

      They just plow on to alienate more and more old time players.

  • Leroy Dörenberg

    They have still months of time to think twice about the vr community! I hope they can make this feature happen like other games can do too

  • Andrew

    Same here, wouldn’t go back to 2D gaming. Lots of other games to choose from until FDev put VR into the update.

  • Bumpy

    ED is sort of known for it in VR so this news doesn’t bode well.

    I can see why they wouldn’t want to support VR, however. The VR landscape is a mess with so many different controllers and HMD standards; trying to support them all must really suck. That’s a lot of work to get them ALL to work, work well and continue to work with their individual updates all the time.

    Aside, I wonder what percentage of ED players are VR?

  • Pablo C

    This just tells us how amazing is No Man Sky.

  • Pablo C

    VR in ELITE is a gimmick, a great one though, but not like the case of NMS or XRebirth, where VR is fully implemented. So Frontier decided not to extend their gimmick to their new update. They never cared about VR controllers and for this update to be in VR, they would need them.

    • Bob

      To make VR work with space legs requires a lot more work. A lot.

      You have to design the game to accommodate VR which means they cannot just shove in VR support. It doesn’t work that way.

      • Pablo C

        I agree, but mostly, they´d need Vr controller support and tracking.

    • That’s an unpopular view but I largely agree.

      ED is amazing in VR, but the game has a lot of VR compatibility issues which last I checked have been completely ignored.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    I dont like Elite,guess I may be the only one.

  • Nick Medina

    Was about to buy it for the expansion cause i want planet exploration with realistic graphics but guess I’m sticking to No Man’s Sky

  • arczi79

    No VR == NO buy.
    It can go even worse with me – I will stop playing ED till the full VR support….

  • FDev are a joke, have been for a while.

  • ymo1965

    I paid for ED direct from their website, just so they got a little more funds. After this short sighted stunt I won’t be bothering. No dice Frontier.

  • sebrk

    Thus will not get my money at launch either.