As announced on the 8th of May, players who purchased Elite: Dangerous from the EliteDangerous.com store before it was published on Steam can now get free Steam Keys.This provides the freedom of choice to those who bought early, but would prefer to play in Steam and take advantage of its built-in social features.
The system for redeeming the keys is live, and as simple as logging into the EliteDangerous.com store, clicking on “Partner Keys”, and claiming a key. Despite what less scrupulous players might hope, it cannot be used to claim an extra copy of the game and send it to a friend, as logging in to the game still requires a registered Frontier account with a copy of the game.
After users link their Frontier and Steam accounts and redeem the provided key in the Steam client, players will be able to download, install, and launch the game through Steam. All new purchases (mostly cosmetic options for various starship hulls, though expansion packs will be available at some point in the future) through the Frontier store will still be available for Steam users; the Frontier account is still used to log into the game, though a “sign on through Steam” button is not outside the realm of possibility.
Presumably, any future extras offered through the Steam storefront in the future will be automatically added to one’s Frontier account. That being said, the developer noted in an announcement that buying directly through their store gives them a larger cut of any sales. Players especially concerned that their money goes directly towards funding the further development of the game should be aware that once the Steam key is generated and linked, Steam gets a cut of future sales no matter where they buy.
A player who already has the game installed and claims the game on Steam will have to download it again to play the Steam version, or copy the files from the old installation to their Steam folder. Some players have reported that keybindings don’t carry across to the Steam version, but it is possible to get around this issue by copying the Custom.binds file.
Players with beta access are also able to try the “PowerPlay” expansion, the third free major update to Elite: Dangerous. In addition to factions, two new ships and the addition of drones will round out the release, though a proposed nerf to module resale has prompted much discussion on the official forums. This debate was touched on in an update from the developers, which also mentioned that Oculus Rift support has been delayed because the new Oculus SDK version “breaks the game.”
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Ramon Rakow.
