X4: Foundations to get "lots of things" in 2025 via updates and DLC

When we attended the DevGAMM conference in Cascais the other day we chatted with Egosoft's CEO & Founder Bernd Lehahn to get an update on the status of X4: Foundations and the ongoing plans for the space sim into 2025 and beyond.

"Lots of things", the German dev answers when asked about what players should expect in the near future in the full video interview below. "Well, we haven't announced anything for the next year yet, but the the lore is always an aspect usually continued in the DLCs. So we always release these free updates which expand the base game and improve the game in every way. This can be AI, user interface, new behaviours, all kinds of things, new gameplays activities. And that's always for free for everybody who just has the base game. But then the DLC is usually add, in addition to new ships and new sectors, also stories, and that is the lore basically being continued. We have this rich back fiction that stems from the earlier games and which were even have some books being written about, and we now have the author of those books [with us]".

"We are definitely expanding on the whole lore side and making this bigger and yes, new DLCs, new expansions will will go deeper into the lore side"

One singularity about X4: Foundations is that Egosoft chose to go single player for the game despite its scale or being inspired by some MMO elements. And there's a very solid reason for that choice.

"Yeah, indeed", Lehahn explains. "We, very early on, like in the early 2000s, we were toying around with the idea of making it into an MMO. This was before there were the MMOs in the space area that exist nowadays, and it is clear that that is attractive and it is very apparent by there are being competitors now that are just that. But I I think we are really lucky that we focused on the single-player aspect, because this simulation on your local PC allows us a much faster progression curve [than] in an MMO. Which feels very similar because it has also this persistent universe and that's usually what the people dream about, that everything matters, everything is really simulated, usually then on a server. But because it's here and it's only for you on your local machine, we can allow you as a player to progress much faster. We don't have to slow you down - in online games it is necessary because you cannot allow a single player to become all powerful after just a week, and then dominate everybody else in the universe".

The full video, which is fully subtitled to your local language, goes deeper into aspects such as, but not limited to:

• X4's dynamic and expanding gameplay (it starts simple, becomes complex)


• Different playstyles


• Emergent gameplay and economy


• Ongoing development and community engagement


• Differences vs competitors such as Everspace, Star Citizen, or Elite: Dangerous


• Mix of first-person and strategic gameplay

Have you tried out the ongoing space sim as of yet?