Frontier had a big promotion for Elite Dangerous planned today: It was meant to be fully free on the Epic Games Store, including Horizons, which was recently merged into the base game. That’s a markdown from a retail rate of $29.99, clearly primed to attract people not just to the game but to the platform. Technically, it rolled out earlier today and should run until Thanksgiving here in the US, giving people plenty of time to hop in and grab it to play and keep permanently.
Unfortunately, as a quick trip to the forums shows, the version of the Elite on EGS seems to be giving players tons of problems. Some players are getting update phasing errors, others aren’t getting their codes, while still others are running into issues linking their accounts.
The good news is that at least Frontier is working on the problem. “We are aware of issues of Epic Games Store players being unable to access the game,” Frontier CM Stephen Benedetti told players in the now 18-page complaint thread. “Our team are investigating and hope to have a solution as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.” The bad news is… well, there’s no ETA. Hopefully they get it fixed before the freebie timer runs out, but at least players can yoink it for free now and wait.
Thank you for your patience Commanders. We continue to work on resolving the issues raised. In the meantime please try completely closing your Epic Games Store client to resolve most issues. We will update you when we have more information.
— Elite Dangerous (@EliteDangerous) November 19, 2020
