"We are facing a serious decline in the quality of graduates looking to enter the industry, " said David Braben.

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We also visited David Braben, the man who created the legendary game Elite in the 1980s and went on to run a successful games business.

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David Braben is asking for a large sum for a game that won't be ready for 18 months - by which time the games world will have changed again.

BBC: Elite reborn

They already had their eye on Elite: Dangerous, Gipps said, and had got in touch with creator David Braben as soon as they heard that the project was happening.

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Nowadays, David Braben's Frontier operates in an industry dominated by giant entertainment and technology conglomerates, from Sony to Vivendi to Microsoft, and it can be hugely expensive to create a new product.

BBC: Elite reborn

Gollancz Editor Marcus Gipps and Orion Deputy Publisher Jon Wood were both fans of the original game and had already discussed with ELITE co-creator David Braben the possibility of publishing original ELITE fiction.

FORBES: Gollancz Buys Tie-In Novel Rights To Elite: Dangerous

From Brian Fargo to Chris Avellone in the US, and Peter Molyneux to David Braben in the UK, giants of classic gaming have turned to Kickstarter to seed their sequels, passion projects and too-cool-for-AAA art games.

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Then there's Eben Upton who came up with the Raspberry Pi project to make a very cheap computing device for schools, and games industry legend David Braben , who has done so much to promote the idea.

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When I met David Braben in Frontier's offices last week he was excited about what it could offer: "What's very exciting about it is it brings the funding directly from the people who are going to play it, " he explained.

BBC: Elite reborn