 In a surprise movie yesterday the gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun published an article about Elite Dangerous that focuses on the conversation they'd recently had with lead game designer Luke Betton and senior producer Samantha Marsh. In it they talk about Odyssey's launch woes, the impending horizons upgrade to 4.0, Frontier's new focus on Elite's narrative and what the future holds for the game after a turbulent year. In this video I'm going to break down everything that was said and importantly what it means for Elite Dangerous and Frontier in the future. It's a huge help to the channel if you hit like and maybe subscribe if you haven't already and clicking the little bell icon to select all notifications will ensure that you don't miss any of our Elite Dangerous content in the future. And if you'd like to directly support the work of this channel you can also join our Patreon via the link in the video description. Before we get into why it's important let's just go over what Frontier had to say in the article. Straight out of the gate the interviewer at Rock Paper Shotgun Rick Lane talks about Odyssey and makes note that in his words quote, Elite's second expansion was to put it likely not well received by Elite's community unquote. He goes on to mention the well documented bugs and performance issues that were present at launch but importantly also raises the issue of more fundamental criticisms leveled at the first person shooter combat and on foot exploration features. Luke Betterton notes that the company are constantly listening to feedback but admits that there are things they could do better. The interviewer does note that the response to the expansion had already resulted in some very significant rethinking at the studio highlighting in particular the cancellation of the console version of Odyssey and the studio's entire refocus onto the 4.0 codebase and Elite Dangerous Odyssey on PC. Luke then continues by saying specifically that Elite Dangerous Odyssey is a platform. The regular viewer of all things burp it will know that this is something we've been saying here since the expansion launched. The release of Odyssey was just the start of the journey punfully intended and that Frontier's intention was always to build on and improve on it going forward. This shouldn't be a gigantic revelation to the long time players of Elite as it was exactly the same model that the company used for the Horizons expansion. After its initial launch, Horizons went on to introduce engineering, the return of the Thargoids, a complete mining and space exploration overhaul and more but this is the first time that Frontier have specifically stated it to be their intention with Odyssey. Had you not been around for Horizons the feeling of is that it that some were left with when Odyssey launched might be understandable. The answer to that question is of course no. We'll never know whether stating the simple fact right from the start for Odyssey would have altered much of the player base's opinion on the expansion. I suspect probably not. The bugs and performance issues grabbed the lion's share of the spotlight in the early stages but at least it has now been stated and we have a reasonable expectation for the future. The book goes on to detail that aside from the changes that players immediately see in 4.0, the back end of the new code base grants the developers access to tools allowing them to create content for the game faster and to a higher quality. Given the shift from Frontier that we seem to be seeing towards more of the narrative content from Elite Dangerous actually being visible and interactable in the game world this would make perfect sense and bodes well for what might be in the games future. As if to back that up the article goes on to reinforce that Frontier where possible really want players on PC in the 4.0 code base whether that be in Horizons or Ideally Odyssey so that they can partake in the game's narrative going forward. On the subject of future content for the game, Samantha Marsh is without giving specifics keen to state that there are further twists in the storyline due to arrive in update 14 and that we can expect new toys and new things to play with. Samantha did mention on foot gameplay specifically stating that Elite is a constantly evolving and living game and that they can't rule out any changes to it. It's worth reiterating here that during the game's pre-launch alpha period it was mentioned that the on foot exploration experience would be looked at further down the line following the generally unfavourable reception that the biology sampling gameplay Luke received from the community and it's possible Samantha's comments could be in relation to that. It's worth noting that Luke Bettenton was promoted to lead designer on Elite Dangerous Odyssey just under 6 months ago and whilst he's appeared on Frontier live streams in the past this is his first major interview outside of FDev since taking on that role. The interview is a fascinating read not only because of the content within it but notably for the fact that it even exists in the first instance. As we've documented on this channel on many occasions particularly when it comes to all things Elite Dangerous Frontier have historically been very reticent to discuss the game generally speaking until they have absolutely no choice. Indeed a solid argument could be made for that policy hurting the game's reputation and it's engagement level with it's player base in what should be a live service environment. However in the last few months in particular there definitely seems to have been a slow thawing in FDev's usually frosty public relations to the point most recently where they skillfully steered the hype train for update 13 and the Proteus Wave in-game event into the station with a plomb. The interview from Rock Paper Shotgun has further peeled back the veneer on the company where they're speaking publicly about itchy subjects like the problems with Odyssey's Gulch, the move to the 4.0 code base, player sentiment around some of Odyssey's design choices and the future of Elite Dangerous. Issues like this would not be headline news for a lot of game developers in the same space again pun intended but for a company like Frontier this represents a fairly continental shift in their relationship with the outside world. It's clearly been a tough year for Frontier with Elite Dangerous that much has been evident to even the most casual of the game's followers. Coming out of the back of it now however the game is in a much better condition. It has a renewed focus on story driven content delivery backed by more open communication from FDev. There's new leadership in the company starting at the top and trickling all the way down through the development and community teams and a renewed open confidence from them that is very encouraging to see. If they can maintain it, it bodes well for the future of our favourite space game. Are you encouraged to see Frontier talking more openly? What changes would you like to see to Odyssey's on foot experience and what do you think is waiting for us in update 14? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now, thanks very much for watching. If you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now.