David Braben: Publisher model prevented development of new Elite

One of the questions that has repeatedly been asked about Frontier Developments’ return to Elite with the Kickstarter for Elite: Dangerous is why it has taken so long for the company to work on a new title in the series. Speaking to IncGamers, Frontier’s David Braben (one of Elite’s original creators) has said that the over-cautious nature of the traditional publisher model has been to blame.

“Publishers had … ?and still have now,? ?established processes and a key part of that is the forecast ROI or return on investment.? ?For that to work there has to have been a sufficiently similar game in the near past to base the forecast? ?upon … Anything else will be? ?‘too risky?’?,” he said.

“Working with publishers is great,? ?but as part of the process,? ?inevitably the publisher will want to steer the game in a particular direction.”

That, according to Braben, was not an acceptable state of affairs for the next Elite.

“Today,? ?we would be steered to make a game with cut-scenes that would appeal to an imagined audience,” he says. ?”That is not the game I want to make.”

A full interview with Braben will be coming to IncGamers in the coming days. If you missed the new Elite: Dangerous video put up over the weekend, turn your eyes to this news post.