Elite Dangerous: Arena , the standalone, CQC-only build of Frontier’s popular space sim, has been pulled from Steam and Xbox Live. Details on the decision are still relatively scarce, but a forum post from Elite Dangerous Senior Community Manager Edward Lewis sheds some light on the decision to ditch Arena and focus on Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons.
Before some Elite Dangerous fans freak out, it’s important to note this doesn’t mean Frontier is no longer supporting Arena mode (formerly known as CQC ), the trio of PvP modes introduced back in 2015. It remains one of the game’s least popular features, as made evident by poor sales of Elite Dangerous: Arena , but the PvP mode won’t be shuttered. New customers just can’t purchase the cheaper SKU from Xbox Live, Steam or Frontier’s own web store.
According to Lewis, Frontier is removing ED:A to “reduce the number of builds that have to be maintained and managed” across two (soon to be three) different platforms. All of the content that was accessible to Arena players will remain in the core game. You’ll just need to own Elite Dangerous, or be one of the few who purchased Arena , to access it. But let’s be honest with each other, fellow Elite Dangerous fans. Space trucking is where the real fun is anyway.
Here’s the full statement from Ed Lewis:
Elite Dangerous: Arena will be removed from sale on Steam, Frontier store, and on the Xbox store. This change is planned for later today.
We’ve been looking at our metrics which suggest that the vast majority of new and regular Arena players tend to play Arena through the main Elite Dangerous client rather than the standalone Arena one. We’ve made the decision to remove the standalone version of Elite Dangerous: Arena in order to reduce the number of builds that have to be maintained and managed across Steam, Xbox One and in 2Q'17 PlayStation Network, as well as clarifying the choices for new players of Elite Dangerous on these storefronts.
Elite Dangerous: Arena continues to be available and supported as part of the wider Elite Dangerous game. Existing and new players that join the Elite Dangerous galaxy will continue to be able to enjoy the fast-paced action of Arena through the main menu. Existing Elite Dangerous: Arena client owners will still be able to enjoy Arena as they have always done.
Not much change but we just wanted to give you a quick heads up, to avoid any confusion.
Elite Dangerous is currently available on PC and Xbox One. The space sim will make the jump to PlayStation 4 sometime later this year.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes and follow Scott on Twitter for more Elite Dangerous news throughout 2017 and however long Frontier supports Elite Dangerous in the years ahead.
