Elite Dangerous will have several different editions and expansions that will be released.
The expansions are being handled as “seasons” which means there wont just be a single new feature in an expansion, but a season of extra features over an extended period of time. For example the first “season” of Elite Dangerous featured several releases such as CQC & Powerplay, the second “season” (Horizons) featured planetary landings.
Players will exist in the same galaxy and be able to play and interact with each other regardless of what expansion seasons they have purchased, but obviously there will be limitations (for example if you have not purchased planetary landings you would be unable to chase another commander down to the surface of a planet). All players will continue to get general improvements, bug fixes and optimisations.
There were a large variety of kickstarter pledge-levels which gave various in-game benefits (e.g. starting with more money or a better ship) but which are not listed here.
Editions tend to be special “bundles” of the Elite Dangerous with some extras, for example the extra in-game Eagle from the Mercenary Edition.
A special edition released for purchase in September 2014.
This edition was given to free to all existing customers who had pre-ordered the game prior to September 2014.
A “early access” version of Elite Dangerous that contains the new Close Quarter Combat gameplay mode and which is only available on the XBox One as part of the Game Preview Program. Players on the XBox are not able to interact with players on PC or Mac versions, but do share the same background galaxy.
This expansion season Introduced planetary landings on rocky, no-atmosphere planets and moons (including “Surface Recon Vehicles” to drive around) & Cobra Mk IV exclusive ship.
It does not include first/third person control of your commander outside of your ship, nor does it include planetary landings for planets with atmospheres, not flying through the atmospheres of gas giants. These have been slated to appear in future expansions.