Steam is celebrating its monumental 20th anniversary with a special event that kicks off today. To pay homage to its rich history and the gamers who have used the platform, Steam has set up a special landing page. This space is designed to take visitors on a nostalgic journey through the past two decades, highlighting the games that have captivated audiences year after year. Among these memorable titles is our very own X3: Reunion, one of Steam's best-selling games of 2006.

To get X3: Reunion into shape for this celebration, we have invested time and effort in refreshing the game specifically for this event.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2810/X3_Reunion/

To further entice both newcomers and long-time fans of the series, an 80% discount on X3: Reunion will be available from September 12 to September 19.

While we've got your attention, it's worth highlighting the ongoing development of the latest instalment, X4: Foundations. Since its original release in 2018, the game has undergone numerous updates and expansions. The current version, 6.20, offers a wealth of content and gameplay enhancements that reflect our commitment to evolving the series while maintaining its core elements.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/392160/X4_Foundations/

Thanks for your support, and enjoy the Steam 20th Anniversary celebration!

• Added support for wider range of resolutions.
  
• Added default controller layout for keyboard/mouse emulation via Steam Input.
  
• Fixed video/animation timing issues with high framerates.
  
• Fixed several causes of crashes.

Fixed continued issues with game not starting under Windows 10/11 with certain monitor resolutions.

We know how passionately you play our games and how many of you enjoy revisiting the beginnings of the X series every now and then. To keep it that way, we have just released small patches for X: Beyond the Frontier (1999) and X-Tension (2000), which now ensure the functionality of both games on Windows 10 and 11.

We wish you lots of fun with X: Beyond the Frontier and X-Tension! Feel free to check out our Steam developer page to discover more games in the X series if you do not already know them.

We know how passionately you play our games and how many of you enjoy revisiting the beginnings of the X series every now and then. To keep it that way, we have just released small patches for X: Beyond the Frontier (1999) and X-Tension (2000), which now ensure the functionality of both games on Windows 10 and 11.

We wish you lots of fun with X: Beyond the Frontier and X-Tension! Feel free to check out our Steam developer page to discover more games in the X series if you do not already know them.

• Simplified first-time setup on Windows
  
• Fixed lib compatibility issues on Linux

• Simplified first-time setup on Windows
  
• Fixed lib compatibility issues on Linux
  
• Fixed several voice samples in German version

Today is an exceptional day. It brings an event that many surely didn't think possible – the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, a new game in the popular X3 series. Furthermore, it is FREE to all owners of X3: Albion Prelude! A dedicated group of players from our DevNet community have been working on this project since 2016, and they are hugely excited to unveil the results of their efforts.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/483330/X3_Farnhams_Legacy/
If you enjoy X3: Farnham's Legacy and want to thank the project team, by doing a good deed, you can buy the X3: Farnham's Legacy - Donation Pack. 100% of Egosoft's proceeds of this Donation Pack will be forwarded to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders. If you prefer to make a donation through another channel, please visit the website of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1591930/X3_Farnhams_Legacy__Donation_Pack/
To celebrate the release of X3: Farnham's Legacy, we're running a big promotional discount this week, which will last until Monday, May 10th, 2021. So, if you don't already own the games you need to play X3: Farnham's Legacy for free, you can now get them at a much reduced price. Just check out the Terran War Pack bundle.

We have also reduced the price of X4: Foundations as part of this promotion. Take advantage of a 40% discount and start your space adventure today! The timing couldn't be better, coming so soon after the extensive 4.00 update, which we released in March 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/392160/X4_Foundations/
Thank you for your support. Have fun with X3: Farnham's Legacy - and of course with X4: Foundations!

X3: Farnham's Legacy is a new game in the X3 space game series. TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK in a living and breathing universe. It incorporates a new storyline and yet more additions to the open, free-form gameplay that forms the core of all X series games. X3: Farnham's Legacy is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude and will be released on May 4th, 2021.

A few days before the release, we have one last team interview for you. This week N8M4R3 answered our questions.

A: Many years ago, while visiting a friend, I saw him playing this space game which at that point was unknown to me. I was completely enthralled by what I saw on the screen. Since my colleague was glued to the keyboard and mouse, and couldn't be moved, I decided to buy the game the next day. That's how I started in the X universe, back in 2004, with X2: The Threat. After several hours of vanilla gameplay, I started to try out scripts and mods. Later on, under X3: TC/AP, I started to make changes to the game myself and published one or two things. You might have seen me on the forum under my username N8M4R3.



I became aware of a post on the forum about a request to release the source code for X3. In that post there was also a reference to a project involving X3 that was already underway. I immediately sent off a signed NDA, with the hope of being allowed to participate in the project. Some time later, and after various e-mails to the Egosoft team, it worked out.

Since I was already working on several modifications for X3: Albion Prelude beforehand, this project came at the right time for me to incorporate my ideas for improvement, and my wishes for additional script commands, into a new installment.

I really like the design of the ships in the X3 series, and the ever-growing possibilities to play and modify the game in your own way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Z9YDCXbdM
The diplomacy options not only give the player a new, non-aggressive way to improve their relationships with individual factions, but also allow them to quickly compensate for any loss of reputation that may result from a gain in reputation with another faction. In addition, this feature offers a whole range of other integrated options with which the player can, for example, obtain blueprints for software, stations and factories. Furthermore, some rare and special ships no longer necessarily have to be captured or boarded, as they can now be unlocked for purchase at various shipyards instead.

When you're a first-timer on a project like this, pretty much everything is a highlight. I was very pleased to get to know the other team members better during Skype conferences, having previously only read their posts on the forum. Thanks to a warm welcome and pleasant conversations about X3 - and sometimes also about topics completely outside of it - I was able to integrate myself relatively quickly into the ongoing project. For some of the suggestions I made, I had to learn that things could be far more complex internally than I was aware of, and couldn't be changed individually without rewriting large parts of the code. Nevertheless, many of my other suggestions made it into the game, which makes me very happy. If there is a 2.0 update one day, and I hope there is, I'll be happy to be back!

I hope that players will enjoy the new expansion to the X3 series, with its many small changes and also some larger ones, and that any outstanding wishes can be fulfilled through the massively expanded scripting and modding possibilities.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/483330/X3_Farnhams_Legacy/

X3: Farnham's Legacy is a new game in the X3 space game series. TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK in a living and breathing universe. It incorporates a new storyline and yet more additions to the open, free-form gameplay that forms the core of all X series games. X3: Farnham's Legacy is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude and will be released on May 4th, 2021.

As we build up to the release, we continue to interview some of the project team members. This week, Cycrow answers our questions.

>> Visit the X3: Farnham's Legacy - Scripts and Modding forum, which is now available.

A: Hi, I’m Matt, also known on the forums as Cycrow. My first X game was X2: The Threat, which I started playing while I was at university. Since then, I started to mod for the games, starting with X2, and it has been my main gaming focus ever since.

As I had worked on some of the previous games, X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Albion Prelude, I was approached about helping out with this new project.

I’ve spent a long time both playing and modding the games, and I always felt a lot more could still be done to improve the X3 series. So, this was a great chance to really expand on the previous games and to hopefully see how far modders will be able to take it after release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Z9YDCXbdM
The simple answer is ‘lots’. So much has been added to the modding, in particular the Script Engine which has been expanded more than in all the previous games combined. It gives more control over many aspects of the game, including vastly improved input and menu systems, allowing new menus to be created.

Too many to go into in any real detail, but I’m particularly happy with how the Ship Browser and Station Manager turned out.



Prepare to be blown away by just how much has been added and improved on.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/483330/X3_Farnhams_Legacy/

X3: Farnham's Legacy is a new game in the X3 space game series. TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD, THINK in a living and breathing universe. It incorporates a new storyline and yet more additions to the open, free-form gameplay that forms the core of all X series games. X3: Farnham's Legacy is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude and will be released on May 4th, 2021.

Over the next few weeks, as we build up to the release, we will be interviewing some of the project team members. This time around, we've had a chat with X2-Illuminatus.

A: Earth year 2005. In the computer games department of a German department store I see a copy of X2: The Threat Limited Edition on the bottom shelf. I was asking myself whether to buy it or not, as the packaging was actually slightly damaged. Yet, being a sci-fi fan, and the game only costing 10 €, I figured there’s not much that could go wrong. The RAM I bought a few months later, in order to properly play the game, was more expensive though.

In 2006 I registered on the Egosoft forum under the name of X2-Illuminatus, and from 2008 onwards I became an active forum member. As a moderator, DevNet member, scripter and also simply a player, I participated in different ways in the development of the X series games over the years.

For over a decade, together with Ketraar, I have been working on several mod and community projects. For example, we created the ‘Operation Loose Ends’ plot in the X3: Albion Prelude update 2.5. Through my activity in DevNet I was always pretty close to the development of the X series games, and so I was asked one day whether I would be interested in, and whether I had any ideas for, developing X3 further.

It’s a combination of nostalgia and the possibility of writing and experiencing storylines. X3 was always very good at providing these little stories about life in, and the history of, the X Universe – not only through plots and bigger storylines, but also through sector descriptions and pieces of information you receive about the objects you interact with. X3 provides the means to add these little stories easily yourself. Additionally, X3: Albion Prelude – back then the ‘last’ X3 game – was a game I still enjoyed playing. Whenever entering Argon Prime or visiting Getsu Fune, and the typical sector music starts playing, I feel reminded of my first start in X2: The Threat or of my first explorations of the X Universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Z9YDCXbdM
X3: Farnham's Legacy plays during a time when more and more gates are shutting down. Obviously, this has an enormous impact on the different factions of the X Universe, which need to deal with this completely new situation. We thought it would be a great idea to let the player experience a similar situation – on their way to a sector, the destination gate suddenly shuts down and the player ends up in an unknown system. There’s no way back. The player will have to explore the unknown to find associates, new technologies, and in the end, hopefully, a way back home.

No-one has to worry too much though: those who do not get lost on the way there, may explore many more systems and sectors, and will experience the familiar sandbox gameplay, with many new possibilities.

The X series games from Egosoft, and the X Universe books by Helge T. Kautz, created a dense lore for the X Universe, which I could always immerse myself in. The gate shutdown is the single biggest event in recent X Universe history, yet was only alluded to before. The first gates have been shut down in X3: Albion Prelude already, and we experience the reactivation of gates in X Rebirth and X4: Foundations. What happened in the time between – which people will later call ‘The Dark’ – we only know from stories. In that respect, I found it very exciting to imagine how the different races of the X Universe would react, when the universe they’ve known for decades or centuries changed drastically in such a short amount of time. Do they try to fight it or come to terms with it, and in what kind of situations could individuals end up?



For me it was the collaboration with people who are as interested as me in breathing new life into X3, but who are also more experienced than me in doing so. Anyone who has worked on a game or mod project, as a team effort, knows that it can be quite hard sometimes to convince others of one’s own ideas and to get them implemented in the way they were meant to be. All the more fun it is then, when your own ideas are agreed to, and any implementation challenges one may see are blown away by a short ‘should be no problem’ by Cycrow, or when one is encouraged by Ketraar to continue working on them.

Embrace and enjoy X3: Farnham's Legacy for what it is: a fun return to the X3 universe with many new ideas.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/483330/X3_Farnhams_Legacy/