Today we are very excited to announce the launch of a new stand-alone product, Elite Dangerous: Arena. Arena is the PVP mode already in Elite Dangerous so all players who own Elite Dangerous or Elite Dangerous: Horizons will already have access to it. Simply select Arena (previously labelled CQC) from the in-game main menu to play.

However, we believe Elite Dangerous: Arena is a compelling game in its own right and want to offer it to players whose main goal is to play fast paced PVP space combat action. This will open Elite Dangerous to a whole new group of players, all of whom you can play against in the Close Quarter Combat Championships (CQC) in Arena mode in Elite Dangerous and Elite Dangerous: Horizons. So if you haven’t played CQC already we have a number of challenges starting today that you can join in with.

Elite Dangerous: Arena is available to new players right now on our store and on steam for £4.99/$7.49.

Click here to learn more about Arena.

Mayhem Launch Celebrations

To celebrate today’s launch we decided to run a series of events for everybody who can play CQC to get involved in.

- CQC Mayhem – Visit our blog post on the Elite Dangerous community site to see our huge schedule of Mayhem events, and to find out how you can get involved.

- Official Launch Livestream – Three hours of CQC with the developers starting at 6PM GMT on our official YouTube Channel. Come and test your skills against six different members of the development team, and be in the chance of winning prizes for taking part.

- The Gladiators Challenge – During the first four weeks after the launch of Arena (16 February – 15 March), three named accounts beginning with ‘FDEV’ will be playing CQC on an ad hoc, but regular, basis. If you manage to get in a game with them, and take a screenshot, you will be entered into a prize draw to win one of two premium Elite Dangerous goodie bags, including a cap, a beanie, three faction mugs, signed artwork, and more. Every paint job in the Elite Dangerous store is also up for grabs, and a couple of Elite Dangerous: Horizons Season passes. There will be a total of five prizes given out – the draw will be done on March 16.

To be in the chance to win, all you have to do is get into a CQC match with either FDEV Rhino, FDEV Wolf or FDEV Jet, take a screenshot of you playing against them (perhaps the leaderboard at the ened of the game), and email it to community@frontier.co.uk with the subject line ‘CQC Gladiators’. Your email address will be added to the list of entries, and winners will be drawn at random at the end of the four weeks.

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