Elite Dangerous Horizon Players Will Not Be Able To Play With Odyssey Players For The Time Being

Elite Dangerous Odyssey officially launches next week, the highly-awaited expansion will bring with it a ton of new game-changing features, not the least of which is the ability to explore planets on foot in first-person. The expansion will also introduce foot-based combat and missions, planet improvements, as well as better lighting and visuals.

Of course, you do have to buy the expansion to get access to these new features. So what happens if you choose not to buy the expansion? Well, nothing really. You can play the Horizons base game in its current state anytime you want without any of the new features, just not with Odyssey players.

“All Elite Dangerous: Odyssey players will gain access to the new features, including planetary improvements, enhanced lighting, and textures. The differences will mean that Elite Dangerous: Horizons players cannot share a gameplay session with those playing Odyssey. However, Odyssey owners will be able to share a session with and play with those in Horizons by launching the game in Horizons mode – though if they do this, they will temporarily not have access to the new Odyssey features.”

Frontier Developments, however, has plans to eventually unite Odyssey and Horizon players in a single universe, giving the latter access to the improvements that come with the expansion for free except for boots-on-the ground features. The update is planned for release sometime after the expansion launches on consoles, which unfortunately, still has no definite release date beyond a fall launch window.

Details can be found on the Elite Dangerous official forums. You can also check out the video below where Game Director Piers Jackson and other of the team talk about the recently-concluded Odyssey Alpha test.