Frontier defends Elite: Dangerous' expansion pricing

There's been some controversy over the complex pricing of Elite Dangerous ' next season of new features, Horizons, which most notably adds planetary landings.

' next season of new features, Horizons, which most notably adds planetary landings. If you're new to Elite, it costs $60/£40 to pre-order Elite Dangerous with the Horizons expansion. If you already own Elite, you get a $15/£10 loyalty discount, bringing the price of Horizons down to $45/£30. That's still quite a bit of money for an expansion, and favors new players, who haven't already spent money on the game. Premium backers who already have lifetime expansion passes, of course, are peachy.

I spoke to Product Manager Ben Dowie back at PAX Prime, who justifies the price by noting that Horizons is "an entire season of expansions," not just planetary landings. He can't describe everything that's coming, though, saying that they "don't want to spoil it for everyone."

In the interview above, we talk about all of that, as well as what's coming in update 1.4. Horizons is releasing this winter.