Elite 4 was "originally conceived" as two games, one online, one not

Speaking to VG247, Frontier's David Braben has revealed that "deep and dark" space game Elite 4 was intended to be not one product, but two.

"It was originally conceived as two different projects, where there'd be one online and one not," Braben told us in Brighton earlier this month. "Two separate games set in the same world. Whether it [was going to be] in the same package or not is another matter."

The LostWinds developer also said that there's currently no competitor to the game's primary mechanic.

"For the way the game mechanic works, there isn't any current competition, but the obvious ones people think of are, I don't know, EVE Online for example," he said.

Braben told us that he hadn't play EVE at all, and also said that he hasn't seen NetDevil's Jumpgate Evolution.

"Not really, no," he said, when asked if he considered space-based MMOs in general to be competitive to Elite 4.

"But it's also the way they play, and these things can change with time. We've got some very specific ideas."

Intriguing. No date, consoles being considered. And nothing else.