Frontier Developments announces the premium beta for Elite Dangerous begins today, allowing access to a single-player build of the space combat remake for those who have backed the game on that level, saying a full premium beta build with multiplayer support will come on May 30th. For other preorder customers, they are also selling upgrades to the premium beta, but they do not bandy the term "premium" about lightly, as this carries a $150.00 price tag. They also describe plans to release one additional alpha to test travel and trading, confusingly saying this will precede the premium beta release, which we presume refers to the May 30th "full" beta. Those who wish to access the alpha can still buy in for the next two weeks, which will set you back $295.00. "The Alpha process has worked well for us. We have gradually built out the key elements of the game, first locally, with single player combat, then with a few thousand players across the internet. On 30th May the Premium Beta extends this to many thousands of players worldwide, with an increasingly rich game," explains David Braben, CEO of Frontier. "I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have played such an important role in Alpha testing, and I’m very happy that we will continue to benefit from their valuable input as they test Beta builds approximately 2 weeks in advance of release."