tomimt: I think Frontier might have avoided this whole current shitstorm they're in right now if they would just have made to offline single player anouncements like this:

"We are sorry, but offline is not going to happen. We are refunding for everyone this is a dealbreaker."

I do think had they announced it like that they would have far less people asking for refunds than they have now, as I do believe some people are asking it because Frontier has managed to come out from this looking like total asses.

Now how the things are turning out they are doing more damage to themselves by not agreeing to those refunds. Everywhere I've seen news about this the discussion is very negative towards Frontier and the situation right now is such a PR disaster for them that it could potentially drive the whole company down.

MaGo72: I remember a time when developers where looking for Beta players and had to employ people for stress tests of the servers and to find bugs.

So people played the game to help the developers and this is the rope that prevents them from getting a refund...nice FD.

karnak1: Better yet, I remember a time when game developpers used to distribute free playable demos of their games on gaming magazines.
Nowadays, they sell the demos on Steam and call it "early access".

joriandrake: I have to disagree on this, I think it's more correct to call that "You pay for alpha/beta testing games instead the other way around"

karnak1: You're absolutely correct. Nowadays one's a full part of a game's development process. I remember that, in some games the final credits used to list the beta-testers.

Now you pay, you work and your reward is... a game that you've already paid. :P

karnak1: Anyone still remembers Star Command?

It was one of Kickstarter's first gaming fiasco/fraud.

I remember that a friend of mine was jumping all over the place because he was expecting the game to be the next step in space-exploration-combat gaming. Now he pretends that the game never existed. eh eh eh

I suppose the same thing will happen with the "Brabenites" when E:D bombs. Everyone will move on, look at the side, whistle and pretend nothing ever happened.

Solei: Link to petition on change.org for reinstating single player:

https://www.change.org/p/frontier-developments-david-braben-please-re-instate-offline-mode-of-elite-dangerous-either-before-official-release-or-at-least-as-an-update-within-good-time-after-the-release-date

Getcomposted: Man, just hurry up and give me my refund.
I have better things to spend my money on now.

Tarm: If you've played it I'll say you've got a 50% chance.

It was pretty clear that the following is more or less how E: D was developed.
E: D needed nostalgic and curious gamers to get it started with a kickstarter. When development was up and running they did a business decision to dump the "old customers" because many of them would pay the game once and play offline and instead concentrate on younger and online oriented mmo/etc gamers that's fine with things like adverts and payment schemes like DLC.

It's all about how many refund requests they get. If those reach a critical number for the business they'll cave and provide refunds. The current shitstorm doesn't bother them much because their targeted customers are totally fine with always online and the like.

Getcomposted: I was too late for the Kickstarter, so I pre-ordered the Beta from their website, but I never got around to playing it. I downloaded the file, but I never installed it. And at no time have I ever been online with it.
So I should hopefully get my refund?
I'll pledge for Thimbleweed Park instead.

Tarm: Personally I'm not angry or surprised even though Elite may very well be my most favourite game ever and I'm pining for another in the series that's like the first.

karnak1: Did you enjoy Elite 2?
Man, I loved the game (even though it really had no plot, like the first Elite). One could really feel that we were on a virtual Cosmos.

Too bad that the game was too advanced for its time and had no legacy to speak of (except for the meh Elite 3).