http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20165344
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

I'm not entirely sure in which direction David is looking to take this. On the one hand he is making it sound like the game is intended to be more along the lines of the original Elite (i.e. very trade focused), on the other he is hinting about the kind of depth of the universe of Frontier.

Maybe he'll try and the holy grail of sandbox space sims - proper planetary landings with on-foot exploration over the planet and in the ship.

No Kickstarter video, or is the site just loading improperly for me?

Well, I expect this game will meet its (exorbitant) funding level. I just hope these guys know how to be careful with their funds; it's an ambitious project. :)

He wants £1,250,000?! That's about $2,000,000. Good luck with that...

And he seems to think he's going to get it by charging £30 for the tier that actually gets you the game.

That's damn near $50! Personally, I think $15 is about right for a tier that just gets you the game (I tend to think in USD on the internet despite being a Brit), I'd call $25 too much in most instances and for this he's asking nearly double that!? Madness!

Honestly, I think they'd secure more money with a more reasonable 'price' for the game.

There are so many really good clones of Elite out there that take the concept beyond what he already did and improves greatly in many areas. He needs to wow me a bit more on this concept.

So they have no pitch video, no screenshots, no concept art... nothing but a bit of text, but the highest goal in Kickstarter history (AFAIK). That takes chutzpah.

I wondered about that as well. He really could have put a little more effort in his pitch.

I'm calling it right now:

Elite: Dangerous will NOT meet its Kickstarter goal.

I'm sure about it. It was a very poor pitch, the game is for a niche market and the amount of money they're asking for is fucking insane. There is absolutely no way they'll make it. Heck, Brian Fargo and Tim Schaffer who are certainly more famous than David Braben asked for less money for games that are not as niche as this one.

I think this has to be the worst famous Kickstarter project i have ever seen. This is worse than Tom Hall and Brenda's Shaker project.

And Elite was a niche game to begin with. It's certainly less popular and less well-known than most any Interplay or Tim Schaffer game.

I am actually one of the few gamers who had played Elite, and I did not even like it. And it's competing with another space-faring game that's currently on Kickstarter, Star Citizen, which has a broader appeal, a superior pitch and a video that shows off the actual and excellent gameplay footage.

This is like the Shaker kickstarter heading right into Project Eternity all over again... which turned out to be a disaster for Shaker.

Speak for yourself. Elite is an absolutely cult game here in Europe - and is far better known than any of Interplay's stuff. Probably not LucasArts, but Elite and Frontier had massive followings here in Europe (First Encounters less so).

But yeah, Braben's pitch sucks and comes across as massively arrogant, an impression which Braben has sadly given again and again in recent years.

Um, the definition of a "cult game" is that it's a niche.

Elite -- some 30-year-old game with no sequel or spinoff released during the past three decade -- is better known than Alone in the Dark, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Descent, Freespace, Dungeon Master, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, or Wasteland?

Really?!?

Do you know if you google "Elite", the result for the video game does not even show up until the 2nd or 3rd page? And Google almost always puts video games atop of my search results based on my search history and behaviors.

Looked at this and then looked at the tiers to say u dont get much for your money is an understatement whers the soundtrack,digital book and all the other extras for contributing more.

Like others i have found the lack of concept art,video troubling. I want to support this but feel is it worth the support.

Yes, it is for the most part better known than most of those games in Europe. In fact, hardly anyone in Europe knows Wasteland beyond the recent Kickstarter.

Compare that to the UK and German Google searches, which have Ian Bell's website, the Frontier Developments website and the Wikipedia page on the first page. Yes, the Elite game Wikipedia page ranks higher than the disambiguation page. Bearing in mind as well that the word 'elite' is very common.

There is a world outside of America, you know.

As a rule of thumb - anything that was PC-exclusive in mainland Europe pre-1995 was niche (because the C64 and then the Amiga were overwhelmingly dominant until that point). Anything that was PC-exclusive in the UK was niche regardless of when it came out, because PC has always been a niche platform there.
I remember a few years ago that Braben was talking about making Elite 4 online only, but the Kickstarter seems to imply that he's realised this isn't a good idea.