A macOS port was released on, but due to technical barriers, support for it was dropped on 11 December 2018. It was announced in 1997 as Elite: IV, but dwindling interest in space simulation games at the time, combined with a lack of funding for the game, ensured that the game remained Vaporware for 15 years, before Frontier obtained sufficient funding via Kickstarter in 2012 to develop it over the course of the next two years, and release it for the PC on 16 December 2014. Elite Dangerous is the Distant Sequel to Frontier: First Encounters and the fourth game in the Elite series of space Simulation Games, developed and published by Frontier Developments.