X4 will allow you to fly all ships personally. From small scouts over a wide range of ship classes up to the biggest carrier, everything can be piloted from the cockpit or an external view. Additionally some drones and utility vehicles in X4 can be remotely controlled by the player.

A big focus in the development of X4 has been to achieve a seamless and immersive experience when moving between ships. You can leave a ship, climb down a ladder, walk over the dock of a large space station into another ship you may have parked there and replace the pilot that was working for you just by clicking on his chair.

Building space stations and factories has always been a foundation of the X games. After gaining enough money through fighting or trading, most players want to establish their own economy and start influencing the universe on a larger scale. In X4, it is now possible to be completely free and creative. Stations can be constructed from a variety of modules, be it production modules, living sections, docks or many other types of parts. The powerful new map system allows you to drag and connect modules using a connection system to design your own unique creations.

EGOSOFT unveiled the next chapter in its long-running X4 space simulation franchise, X4: Kingdom End, the fourth expansion coming to PC (Steam/GOG) in 2023.

X4: Kingdom End celebrates the long-awaited reunion with the Boron, and completes the collection of the main factions in the X Universe. Discover the unique Boron ships, and fly them through distinctive systems, on a journey of discovery. Visit fascinating places, uncover old secrets and make new acquaintances.

Embark on an immersive new chapter of X4!

An expedition into the unknown

Heretic's End holds a secret to be discovered. Flickering lights on a previously inactive jump gate are causing a stir. Joining forces in the name of cooperation, a multi-factional expedition sets out to investigate the phenomenon. Prepare for an immersive story of collaboration, where many vastly different minds must pull together for the greater good.

Unique new ships will take your breath away

Boron ships are as unconventional as you would expect from such an extraordinary species. X4: Kingdom End introduces a wide variety of Boron ships of different classes, which excel with their fluid designs, their wavelike shell animation, and their distinctive grace and uniqueness. Come aboard and experience what may very well be the most breath-taking ships in the X-Universe.

Among others, you can look forward to:

• Ray (Destroyer) As though it had just emerged from the water, and was waiting for its prey with bared teeth, the Ray destroyer impresses with its delicate construction. But, one should not be dazzled by it for too long; even the normally peace-loving Boron will defend themselves if necessary.
• Shark (Carrier) With its sweeping form and a dynamism all of its own, the Boron XL carrier immediately casts a spell over anyone who sets eyes on it. Perhaps its greatest surprise, however, is easily overlooked at first glance. With the ability to have smaller ships dock and launch from the side, the carrier provides a distinct advantage on the battlefield that should not be underestimated.

X4: Foundations 6.00 Update

X4: Kingdom End is being released at the same time as the extensive 6.00 update for X4: Foundations. As is our tradition, we will once again be introducing a number of significant improvements to the base game in this major, free update for all X4 owners. We won't be able to show the full changelog until a later date, but X4 players can already look forward to the following upcoming 6.00 improvements:

• Position Defence, a new feature which allows you to have a carrier-led fleet defend a larger area
• A new cinematic camera cutscene mode
• Improvements in, among other things, AI combat and fleet behaviour, trade behaviour, boarding, salvaging, docking experience, flight pathing, low attention combat simulation, and the station editor
• UI and quality-of-life improvements
• Performance improvements
• ... and much more

The development of X4: Kingdom End was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action with state funding as part of the federal government's computer games funding program with an amount of 941,588 Euro.

Ships also offer a variety of upgrades. Engines, weapons and other equipment can be added in a graphical editor and actually seen on the ship.

X4 will be the first X game to allow our races and factions to freely build and expand their empires; the same flexibility the player enjoys in creatively designing space stations from modular building blocks is also available to them. Races expand their empire based on supply and demand, which leads to an extremely dynamic universe where every action the player makes can influence the course of the entire universe.

Once you have more ships and many NPCs working for you as pilots, crew or station managers, the map will be your preferred method of managing it all. Ships can be ordered with simple clicks and through drag-and-drop operations to set their future path and commands.

Graphically plan your trade routes, coordinate attacks with your entire fleet, manage the hierarchy or send ships on remote exploration missions.

One of the key selling points of X games has always been the real, simulated economy. Wares produced by hundreds of stations and transported by thousands of ships are actually traded by NPCs and prices develop based on this simulated economy. This is the foundation of our living and breathing universe. Now with X4, we have taken another, massive step. For the first time in any X game, all parts of the NPC economy are manufactured from resources. Ships, weapons, upgrades, ammo and even stations. You name it. Everything comes out of the simulated economy.

The seamless change from ship to ship and from NPCs controlling your empire for you continues on a higher level. Once you own a larger fleet, you will be very interested in researching a technology from your HQ: Teleportation. Once you've unlocked teleportation, you can jump from ship to ship a lot quicker and experience all the critical situations your NPCs encounter first hand. Every order you have given to a ship before turns into a mission objective when you pilot the ship yourself. The moment you leave again, your pilot takes the helm and continues with their previous orders.

In X4, you can start your journey from a number of different gamestarts and as a number of different characters, each with their own role, set of relations and different ships and technologies to start with. No matter how you start, you are always free to develop in any other direction. Focus on exploration, make money with illegal trading and theft, command large battle fleets or become the greatest entrepreneur ever. It's all up to you to decide.

Key Features

• Spaceflight sandbox: Acquire ships and upgrade their systems or create fleets of hundreds. From small scouts to massive capital ships.  Fly them all from cockpit or bridge and remote command with a powerful map.
• Research: Research new technologies like teleportation, blueprints for station and ship construction and much more
• Build: Full creativity with station construction.  Station and factory modules can be freely connected to form ever-growing economic or military installations.
• Explore: A massive universe awaits sheer endless opportunities for exploration. Find resources for mining and crafting, to acquire rare technologies. Explore ancient installations.
• Sandbox Gamestarts: Start into X4 from a variety of angles. Represent different factions, ships, and technologies. Every start offers a new view at the universe, but all allow you to unlock everything.
• Dynamic universe: Factions build and expand stations dynamically and react to the economy and military threats. Every game can take a new and unexpected turn for the entire universe.
• Complex Economy: Trade with a single ship or rise to become an empire manager competing with entire civilizations.  A fully simulated and dynamic economy reacts to changes on every level.

X4: Foundations is currently available for PC (Steam and egosoft.com).