Elite 4 to be DRM-free

After years of waiting and several false starts, the fourth game in the legendary Elite series of space-exploration games is underway. Elite: Dangerous, currently being kickstartered by David Braben, sounds a lot like the original: shoot, trade and upgrade in a vast, procedurally-generated universe packed with stuff to do.

In the game, you will of course begin with a spacecraft and a small sum of Credits. You will be able to trade, pirate, bounty-hunt, explore, and salvage your way to wealth and fame, building on those key elements of the previous games, and with sumptuous graphics only now possible with the performance of today's machines. Only this time some of the ships out there will be other players like yourself – other members of a secret 'Elite' group of space-farers

Generous Kickstarter participants will get star systems named for them. The physics model will, of course, include inertia.