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Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter overcomes mid-campaign dip; is going to make it

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David Braben is stood on the Bridge, legs angled 94 degrees apart for maximum masculinity. He’s ordered the spaceship-boosters to be set to Really Fast. He’s personally turned the money hoover to its noisiest level. He’s commanded that the ship’s chairs be violently rattled by an unseen force.

In short, he’s doing everything he can to see Elite: Dangerous’ Kickstarter campaign through its final three days. And he might just make it.

“This morning has been incredible, just watching the numbers increase,” said Frontier in a Kickstarter update today. “We currently have a pledge total of over £1.2 million, with less than £50,000 left to raise

“We now also have 20,505 backers, another incredible number and a huge thanks to each and every one of you. We are going to make this game and it is all thanks to you. But we’re not quite there yet, so keep pledging, keep spreading the word, let’s make the most of these final 50 or so hours!”

Frontier have rustled up a couple of new incentives to do just that. The first is a “modest” stretch goal, which will see 10 more playable ships added to the game should the project break £1.5m, bringing the total to 25 ships.

The second is a new limited availability pledge option at £25. Pledgers will get a digital copy of the game, as well as 500 in-game credits. Anyone already pledging above this level will be granted the 500 credit default starting bonus automatically.

It hasn’t always been a matter of stretch goals and premature celebration. When Star Citizen designer Chris Roberts made a heartfelt and respectful plea before Christmas to backers to consider Elite too, the campaign was in relatively bad shape. Frontier Developments had laid off 14 staff days earlier, and the developers were £456,000 off the game’s ambitious £1,250,000 target with 17 days to go.

“I believe the world is big enough for multiple quality Space Sims,” said Roberts at the time. “Having to compete against the Star Wars X-Wing games from Larry Holland certainly didn’t harm Wing Commander and I feel Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous are different types / styles of games. Star Citizen is more focused on a ‘crafted’ approach to the universe – more detail, cinematic flair and more unique characters and locations whereas Elite will follow a more procedural approach which will allow it to have a much larger galaxy to explore as a lot of content will be computer generated.

“The original Elite definitely got me thinking about just how cool it would be to blend 3D space combat that with a cinematic story to create the experience I always craved when watching Star Wars,” he concluded.

What are your reasons for wanting a new Elite, if any?