Frontier will give a Steam key to anyone who has bought or buys Elite: Dangerous from its online shop, as well as those who backed the game's Kickstarter campaign.

In a post on the Frontier forum, community manager Edward Lewis encouraged potential customers to buy the space game from EliteDangerous.com rather than Steam because that way the developer gets all the cash. Steam owner Valve gets a cut of each sale on its platform, typically set at 30 per cent.

"We always appreciate it when you buy direct from our store because it means we can put more into supporting and developing Elite: Dangerous," Lewis said.

"But we know a number of long-time players and backers like to play through Steam and we think it's fair everyone has that option, not just new players."

Lewis added that Frontier had worked with Valve to create a way for players to connect their Steam and Frontier accounts, as Elite: Dangerous runs on Frontier's servers. This is coming soon.

Owners of the game will be able to generate a Steam key from their account page from 28th May, Lewis added.

"The team really has been working hard on this one, and we're all super happy to finally have an answer for you," he continued. "Thanks for bearing with us and thanks for playing, as always."

Elite: Dangerous launched on Steam back in April priced £39.99. Elite: Dangerous can be updated automatically by Steam as well as via the game's launcher, but DLC needs to be bought from the Elite: Dangerous web store.