The Egosoft team recently shared an update on their latest work, reporting that X4: Kingdom End, the latest expansion of X4: Foundations, and the new bundle, Community of Planets Edition, were very successful. They thanked their community for the support and positive reception. They’re currently engaged in small bug fixes and improvements on top of the 6.00 update that launched with Kingdom End, and plan to release version 6.10 or 6.20 soon.
The ongoing work is happening in conjunction with experiments with Multiverse Team Seasons and an ongoing Online Beta. However, the primary focus of the conversation was an overview of development plans for the next year, revolving around a large 7.00 update.
Two significant features of the 7.00 update were discussed. The first involves addressing a common misunderstanding about whether X4 is a 4X game. The X Series has been around for a long time and was not initially aimed at being a 4X game as it is known today.
The team is developing a late-game feature best referred to as an “existential crisis”, a challenge for advanced players to take on an entire faction. There are multiple faction options, which haven’t been finalized yet. While the player will have the option to avoid conflict, they can choose to take on the challenge of a war against a major faction in the X Universe as an end game scenario.
This feature is essentially for the players who have already built a sprawling economy, constructed their own ships, and set up a shipyard. It’s noted that this feature might not be for everyone, but should offer an exciting challenge for a good portion of their fan base.
The second major feature involves better ship control in external camera view. While much of the development focus for X4: Foundations was on the first-person view, there was less attention given to the alternative of controlling the ship in an external view. The team plans to enhance this aspect in the 7.00 update.
Regardless of the details shared, game development is fluid and things might change. Egosoft wants to assure fans that X4 is far from finished and they still have big plans for its future development. More updates are expected in the near future and the team continues to appreciate all the support from their fan base. They’re excited to receive feedback from players on their future work.