Frontier Dev Regulatory News (FDEV)

1 April 2014

Frontier Developments plc

Frontier & Gollancz announce three book deal to create books set in "Elite: Dangerous" world, and selected authors

Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) and Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Company, are delighted to announce the authors who will be writing their three tie-in novels set in the world of Elite: Dangerous, the ground-breaking sequel to best-selling computer game Elite.

Frontier received crowd-sourced funding for Elite: Dangerous via a successful campaign on the Kickstarter website, and Gollancz contributed three of the book-related pledges, for over £13,000 to secure the rights to publish the three related books. Gollancz editor Marcus Gipps has now selected the authors and collaborated closely with Frontier to ensure continuity and reflect the evolving game world.

The three titles will be ELITE: WANTED, by Stephen Deas and Gavin Smith; ELITE: NEMORENSIS, by Simon Spurrier and ELITE: DOCKING IS DIFFICULT, by Gideon Defoe. All the authors selected for this project are successful writers with a strong track record in the genre.

Marcus Gipps, Editor at Gollancz, said:

"I was delighted by the response to our involvement with Elite: Dangerous, and very grateful for all of the authors who contacted me and asked to be considered. It was a difficult decision, but in the end I think we've ended up with three remarkable books, each of which takes a very different look at the expansive game Frontier has devised while still feeling part of the same universe.

"It's been wonderful to work with Frontier and our four talented authors, who will bring their own fanbases to the books."

David Braben, CEO of Frontier Developments, said:

"I am a huge science fiction fan, avidly reading sci-fi novels since I was small. I've always enjoyed rich, consistent worlds, so the ability to work closely with a number of authors as we create our own galaxy-wide fiction has been amazing.

"Elite: Dangerous includes thousands of inhabited star systems with their own histories spanning more than a millennium, with details ranging from what people eat to how they are governed. We have worked with the authors to include things in the game that they need for their fiction in the worlds in which their stories are set.

"Books are a great way to bring such worlds to life, and will fire players' imagination and enthusiasm for the wider game as well as, of course, standing as creative works in their own right. I look forward to reading the final books."

The books will be released for sale as eBooks in major digital stores on 15 May 2014. Collectors' hardbacks will then be published for sale alongside the retail release of the game later that year.

Further details of each of the titles:

ELITE: WANTED, by Stephen Deas and Gavin Smith, is a space epic told from two points of view - the hunted, and the hunter - as the search for a mysterious alien artefact spirals into a tense stand-off. Both Gavin and Stephen are regular Gollancz authors - having produced 15 books between them over the last few years - and their combined talent makes this a gripping tale.

ELITE: NEMORENSIS, by Simon Spurrier, tells the story of an unlikely pair of star-crossed lovers, and their encounter with an alien being of mysterious origin and powers. Simon is currently writing X-MEN for Marvel Comics and CROSSED for Avatar Press, and has written for Judge Dredd, Wolverine and many other popular characters. He has published two novels with Hodder and five licensed novels based on Warhammer and 2000AD properties.

ELITE: DOCKING IS DIFFICULT, by Gideon Defoe, explores what life in such a big and exciting universe is really like for one unimportant young man from a backwater planet on the outskirts of humanity. Gideon is best known for his comic novels featuring THE PIRATES! and was the scriptwriter for the Oscar-nominated Aardman film THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS, based on his books.

For any questions or further information please contact:

Gollancz

Marcus Gipps on Marcus.gipps@orionbooks.co.uk or

Jon Weir on Jonathan.Weir@Orionbooks.co.uk

Frontier

Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR. E: alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk

Kay Larsen / Adrian Duffield, Instinctif Partners. Tel: 020 7457 2020

About Frontier Developments plc.

Frontier Developments plc, listed on the AIM stock market (ticker: FDEV), is a leading independent game developer founded in 1994 by David Braben, co-author of the seminal 'Elite' game. Based in Cambridge, UK and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Frontier uses its proprietary 'Cobra' game development technology to create innovative games across videogame consoles, computers, smartphones and tablets. 

As of 12 February 2014, Frontier had raised £2.31 million via Kickstarter, the crowd funding website, and its own site to develop Elite: Dangerous. The studio is also working on a number of other titles, and released 'Zoo Tycoon' as a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox One console in 2013.

About Gollancz

Gollancz is the oldest specialist SF & Fantasy publisher in the UK. Founded in 1927 and with a continuous SF publishing programme dating back to 1961, the imprint of the Orion Publishing Group is home to a galaxy of award-winning and bestselling authors. Through the long-running SF and Fantasy Masterworks programme, and major digital initiative the SF Gateway, Gollancz has one of the largest ranges of SF and Fantasy of any publisher in the world.