Crowdfunding success story Elite: Dangerous has generated a fair amount of hype since it surpassed its original goal of £1.25 million (approximately $1.95 million), but it looks like the game may no longer offer one of the features initially promised during the Kickstarter campaign: an offline mode.

Elite: Dangerous is meant to be the newest entry into the popular “Elite” space sim series. Frontier Developments, the developer behind the game, initially planned on releasing the game as Elite 4, but when they failed to secure the funds from a traditional publisher, they turned to Kickstarter.

The game promises an immense 1:1 scale galaxy with over 400 billion star systems based on the Milky Way. It also offers support for multiple peripherals, including the Oculus Rift.

Lead designer David Braben wrote a blog post providing an update on the game’s current status to the community, explaining why Elite: Dangerous could not be a fully offline game.

“Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time,” Braben wrote. “But this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy. A fully offline experience would be unacceptably limited and static compared to the dynamic, ever unfolding experience we are delivering.”

The game will still offer solo play, but it will require a steady internet connection so that the game can frequently verify content and updates through the online servers.

Elite: Dangerous is set to officially release on December 16, 2014, but some features will not be present on the game at launch.

Draben wrote: “These additional features will come post-launch, as we have always planned.  That is solely because we want to make sure it is done correctly and to a quality we are proud of and that matches the other aspects of what we plan to be an incredible experience that we will deliver on 16th December.”

Elite: Dangerous is available on PC only and can > for those who backed the Kickstarter campaign or who pre-order early.

Image Credit: Elite: Dangerous