From Gamespot.

David Braben says strong ties with Microsoft helped with the decision to skip PS4.

Elite: Dangerous, the modern day reboot of Frontier Developments' iconic spacefaring game, will be released on Xbox One as a console exclusive later this year.

Phil Spencer, the Microsoft executive in charge of Xbox, announced the deal during a press conference held at GDC on Wednesday. Later in the day, Frontier Developments exec David Braben assured fans that the console port would be "the complete and authentic Elite: Dangerous experience".

In a follow-up interview with GameSpot, Braben said it was not an easy choice to lock the game to one console platform exclusively.

"I think there were lots of factors - it was a hard decision," he said, "they're both great platforms."

Braben suggested that his studio's previous partnerships with Microsoft, such as with the Xbox One launch title Zoo Tycoon, gave him more reasons to partner with Microsoft.

"We've had a long relationship with Microsoft," he told GameSpot.

"The Xbox audience has been very good to us. We've sold quite a few Xbox games with Microsoft. We also had a launch title for Xbox One, so our tools and technology has been battle-hardened on Xbox One already.

"We have a lot of experienced people at the studio who know Xbox One intimately, so it actually is a very logical choice for us. Also, Xbox One sales have been doing very well since the price went down, so it's an exciting time. But it was a difficult decision."

Timed

Hard decision huh? Cold hard cash decision...

I kid, they need to prioritise versions to get them ready for whatever consoles they release it on, however I'm surprised that it's even coming to a console. Seems like wasted effort when the 'authentic experience' is on PC now.

Ohhhh kaaaay. There is bugger all difference in the hardware design of the two consoles. Both are pretty much like pimped AMD out A-series laptops. The game is complete and only needs a simple porting job, which could easily be outsourced.

I have no problem with games being exclusive to one console. I just wish developers would stop with the euphemisms and BS talk in trying to explain the decision without giving the full story.

When you say no thanks to almost 60% of the potential market there is more too it in tthis generation than "we've only made games on this console in the past". That's a 7th gen reason, when PS3 was quite an unfamiliar hardware design, and it was no simple thing to just port a PC game to ps3 if you had never worked on Ps3 before.

Sure mate, making your game exclusive in any way, shape or form must be a hard decision

That gif right there is how 99% of the 2nd/3rd party exclusives in this world work.

They already have a relationship with MS and they've already developed a game for XBOne, so even though "all they need to do is a simple port", it'll be simpler for XBOne since they already know how to work the architecture, no matter how similar the PS4 is.

I believe the developer in this case (which is a rarity). Anyone really think MS is gonna moneyhat a 15 month old online only PC game? "PS4 has 20M sold. They wouldn't pass up on those potential sales". It's not that simple all the time. See: MGS4 exclusivity.

Main release was only like 3 months ago, Beta release doesn't count, even if it counts on PC.

I read that it released in December, but for some reason, I counted back to 2013 =/

But even still, I feel like this game is so obscure and under the radar (had anyone heard of it prior to this announcement?) that the developer's prior relationship was incentive enough to make it exclusive. Matter of fact, the most prominent games they've made of late have been Xbox exclusive (and Screamride is coming up)

I agree with the idea of it, they have a good working relationship with Xbox so do it on Xbox. 

And yes, loads of people have heard of Elite Dangerous but if you don't know that you know Elite. They are trying to live up to the name, that's a hard task. I was very interested until the price and specs came out for PC, my laptop can handle some games, just not that (well it can but not to the level I'd like).

I wonder how this is going to sell on consoles. I find it quite entertaining on my laptop, while watching netflix or browsing the internet. It's not all that engaging as a full focus game. It's 1984 game mechanics with a 2015 lick of paint, extremely beautiful lick of paint, yet it's pretty much an empty sandbox. I guess XBox one is the right choice with pip tv functionality.