Elite: Dangerous developer Frontier Developments has confirmed that the game’s Premium Beta will start today, ahead of a full multiplayer test on May 30. It's not out just yet, but you'll be able to download it here when it's released.
*UPDATE* Eurogamer are reporting that the Premium Beta will cost a whopping £100. Which is... wow. Quite a lot of money.
Today's Premium Beta will enable users to download a single player combat build of the game, with a larger full multiplayer Beta to launch May 30. Before the launch Frontier will also release one final Elite: Dangerous Alpha phase, Phase 4, which adds Travel and Trading. here's how the team described Phase 4 in a press release sent to Strategy Informer today.
Alpha phase 4 expands significantly on this with two modes of faster than light travel - in-system 'super-cruise' and between-system 'hyperspace'. The full Milky Way galactic map, containing some 400,000,000,000 star systems, will be present. Alpha 4 gameplay is focused on a 200 cubic light year volume of space, far from Earth.
Dates and further details for Alpha Phase 4 "will be announced shortly".
David Braben, CEO of Frontier, writes in the press release: “The Alpha process has worked well for us. We have gradually built out the key elements of the game, first locally, with single player combat, then with a few thousand players across the internet. On 30th May the Premium Beta extends this to many thousands of players worldwide, with an increasingly rich game. I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have played such an important role in Alpha testing, and I’m very happy that we will continue to benefit from their valuable input as they test Beta builds approximately 2 weeks in advance of release.
On 30th May we move into a new phase of Premium Beta testing, and I’m delighted to be able to welcome a significant numbers of new players to Elite: Dangerous today.”
