Despite its flaws, I enjoyed the “set-your-own-goals” gameplay of Egosoft’s X3. Unfortunately, the rejigged version of the game, X Rebirth, had a disastrously release it struggled to recover from and I didn’t really pay it much attention. But Egosoft hasn’t given up on the franchise, with a sequel, X4, tentatively announced via the developer’s recent newsletter.
According to Egosoft managing director Bernd Lehahn, it’s unlikely X4 will be the game’s final name, but for all intents and purposes, it’s a follow-up to X3 and Rebirth. In fact, Lehahn says it should make up for the disappointment caused by X Rebirth, as the studio has had a chance to come to terms with what made the most recent instalment flop:
When we worked on X Rebirth we needed to make a lot of simplifications. We removed some features in order to be able to concentrate on others. But when X Rebirth was released, many fans expected it to be an “X4”; a game with most of the key features of the X3 games and then some.
Since then, we have worked hard to make X Rebirth a better game, incorporating player feedback, continuing to develop the engine it is based on, and releasing many updates and expansions. However we also realise that there are still many unfulfilled wishes, some of which would require extensive changes that couldn’t be implemented in the existing game.
Many of these are things we would also like to see in a space game and these, along with the foundations laid by all the work and feedback that went into X Rebirth, have been the basis for the big project that we have been working on for the last few years: a real X4.
He goes on to mention that Egosoft doesn’t have much else to say regarding X4, but should have a few bits and pieces to show off next year. The landscape’s quite different to what it was when X3 came out — the space simulator genre was severely neglected, so even X3 and the half-baked X Rebirth still did OK.
Now you have Elite and the upcoming Star Citizen to contend with, not to mention a flurry of indie titles on their way. Egosoft certainly has its work cut out for it.
EGOSOFT announces X Rebirth VR Edition [Egosoft]
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2 responses to “Space Sim Developer Egosoft Announces Sequel To X Rebirth”
today got epic announcments
This is good news. I like E:D but you’re lying to yourself if you can’t see that it has massive shortcomings and lots of as-yet untapped potential, and Star Citizen is not yet anywhere close enough to being a complete game for me to buy it (and anyone who claims to know for sure if it ever will be is also lying to themselves), so honestly I do still feel pretty under-served as a space sim fan. Egosoft have a good history of delivering and the amount of post-release work on Rebirth was admirable, so hopefully X4 hits the spot.
Sadly i don’t trust them anymore , the amount of lies and disappointments we have encountered in X-rebirth made me really hate the way they are going , the interface is truly a disaster to the pc gaming industry, its a shame to even look at , really lost hope of the developers , and i have been an x-btf player.
X-rebirth is a journey of suffering and frustration and bug hunting and finding workarounds (if there is any) , its annoying to do any task in the game , nothing feels right , lot of things to do but most of them are extremely bugged that would left you annoyed, no matter how many patches is released for the game , the game is totaly broken.
And not only bugs that annoys me , even many game features , like the badly implemented station walking and searching box’s…… Really???
Also the dialog system …. What is this …. No really what is this??.
Lastly games in the 90s might have better graphics than x-rebirth….
Right now i am enjoying Elite dangeroues with its quality design, i don’t understand the hate people have for ED ,at least they try to deliver what they promised and dont have complete blackout on news, and when they add something new they add it right (balancing issue’s is not disastrous as bugs or bad implementation).
Good luck egosoft but i have no interest in your games anymore.