If you're just starting Elite Dangerous on PS4, jump on board this unfolding alien mystery
Elite Dangerous welcomes new players with an exciting enigma.
Elite Dangerous is a space sandbox which is packed with mysteries. Whenever Frontier Developments adds a new one, players on PC and Xbox One band together and try to work out what's going on, leading to terrific, community-driven events like the discovery of aliens in Elite Dangerous after years of teasing.
Apparently to coincide with the release of Elite Dangerous on PS4, Frontier Developments has kicked off another new player experience with the addition of mysterious new structures.
Polygon has a great rundown of what's happened so far, but basically, players found five alien structures and worked out how to make the doors open. Inside they found a device which made a sound, and using the usual ARG sound analysis wizz-fizz nonsense I don't pretend to understand they turned it into a picture.
The picture seems to be a map, but nobody's figured out what it points to yet. There are 400 billion star systems in Elite Dangerous, but the community is highly mobilised and very sharp, so it probably won't take long.
In the meantime, new players on PS4 can visit the sites and get a taste for what it's like to be part of this shared universe. It does seem a pity that this didn't happen next week, to give new Elite Dangerous players a chance to pick up more powerful ships and get a feel for things, so they could participate more fully - but the rush to get in on the mystery is certainly a goad to pick the game up in launch week, right?