After the uproar over the decision to remove offline, Frontier Developments has explained how they will process refunds for Elite Dangerous.
FD still defends their decision, explaining that it’s due to the game’s initial design. They put serious thought and effort on an offline mode, and could not predict that it would prove unfeasible. Again, it’s not that an offline mode is technically impossible, but they don’t have enough in terms of budget / effort / quality to make it happen. They also regret not informing fans throughout development, as this would have calibrated their expectations better.
FD has placed preconditions for the refunds. You can get a refund assuming you haven’t played either the alpha or beta. However, they are also willing to look at individual cases:
We want to make sure we treat each person’s situation with the thoroughness it deserves, and have contacted each of them to ask that they bear with us over the next few working days if their circumstances do not fit either criteria above as we look into individual requests.
