Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is a new update to the space-faring simulator which is slated to arrive sometime in early 2021. If you were hoping to explore distant worlds in VR, this time on-foot, you’ll be waiting a bit longer than flatscreen players.
“Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will not be VR-compatible at launch,” Tim Smith, Frontier Community Manager says in an official forum post. “We’re big fans of VR and we are truly proud of the amazing experience that we currently offer in Elite Dangerous. However, the new gameplay, mechanics and features that will be introduced with Elite Dangerous: Odyssey means that we had to re-examine if we could deliver that same experience without compromise, which, for launch, means Odyssey will not be VR-compatible.”
Additionally, Smith says that base building is “not currently on the roadmap for Elite Dangerous.”
Planned features do however include on-foot exploration, new planetary tech, social hubs, and combat, some of which can be seen in the new trailer.
Up until now, all paid expansions for Elite Dangerous have included VR support, likely because they were either ship or vehicle-based and didn’t require an entirely new movement scheme that a first-person, embodied game might.
Still, the studio hasn’t outright said VR support isn’t coming, so there may still be hope. In any case, you can now wishlist Elite Dangerous: Odyssey on Steam. There’s no pricing info yet, although Frontier has at very least confirmed that Lifetime Expansion Pass holders will have it for free when it launches in early 2021.