Space trading game Elite: Dangerous is to be launched on 16 December.

The latest sequel to the influential game will go on general release after months of testing by those who backed it on Kickstarter.

After launch, the game will face stiff competition from other space-based games currently in development.

Many of those offer players very similar experiences to the fighting, trading and exploring in deep space seen in Elite.

Plans to make the fourth instalment in the Elite series of games emerged in November 2012 when the project appeared on Kickstarter seeking to raise £1.25m to develop the game.

Elite: Dangerous is being made by Cambridgeshire-based Frontier Developments, the game studio headed by David Braben who co-developed the original Elite game. He said he used Kickstarter because it would have been hard to get a publisher to back the idea.

The December release date is later than originally planned and the game will initially only be playable on PCs. A Mac version is due to follow three months after the original release. Frontier is planning an event on 22 November at which some players will get a look at what the finished game will look like.