Elite Dangerous: Odyssey offers the tantalising promise of, at last, being able to jump out of your ship and go for a wander. The expansion, due out early next year, sounds like the most significant update to the space sim yet, but Frontier has confirmed that it's not one that you'll be able to experience in VR—at least not at launch.
We've only seen a cinematic trailer so far, but eventually we'll be planting our digital boots on distant worlds, hanging out in social hubs and teaming up with other pilots to go on tactical FPS missions.
On the official forums, community manager Tim Smith explained that the scale of the expansion adds some more wrinkles for VR, so Frontier's had to reassess the feature, meaning that you won't be going off and exploring new worlds and getting into shootouts in virtual reality right away.
"We're big fans of VR and we are truly proud of the amazing experience that we currently offer in Elite Dangerous," said Smith. "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."
There's no word on when VR support might come to Odyssey, if it ever does, but this won't have an affect on the rest of the game. The base game and Horizons will continue to support VR, and Frontier will provide more details about how it's handling the transition when you go from VR in your vehicle to non-VR when you're walking around closer to release.
