Egosoft GmbH (formerly Ego Software) is a German

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Würselen Würselen (, Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ) is a town in the borough of Aachen (district), Aachen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Würselen lies north of the city of Aachen in the immediate vicinity of the tripoint of Belgium, ...

, Germany. The company was founded by Bernd Lehahn in 1988. Egosoft is best known for its '' X'' series of video games, a series of space simulator games noted for combining open-ended gameplay, dynamic

market-driven economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers are ...

and compelling storyline. The series began in 1999 with '' X: Beyond the Frontier''. Since then, the series has expanded with three sequels and three standalone expansions; the latest being '' X4: Foundations'', released 30 November 2018.

History

Egosoft was founded in

by Bernd Lehahn in 1988, making it the oldest active video game company in Germany. Its first game, ''Hotel Detective'', was released for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

in June 1988. In 2000, Egosoft planned a multiplayer

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PC game, PCs, Console game, consoles and ...

called ''Online Universe'' or ''X Online''. This project was intended to be "the next step in the evolution of Egosoft's X universe." Egosoft has since released a number of games, yet has given little indication of the progress of this project. In 2003, Egosoft staff were working on a later version—codenamed ''X2OL''—which Egosoft

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Bernd Lehahn described as their "long-term goal." There is still no official information on the ''Online Universe'', though there has been speculation that X2 and X3's 2007 uplink feature may be a positive spin-off of the project. In late 2009, Egosoft announced that ''Terran Conflict'' completed the story started in ''X: Beyond the Frontier'', taken by some to mean the end of the franchise. However, in March 2011 they announced on their X-Universe forums that they would be attending FedCon XX in Düsseldorf on 28 April 2011, and would show preview footage of their current project, previously only referred to by the codename TNBT (''The Next Big Thing''). However, on 20 April 2011, they released a trailer officially announcing ''X Rebirth'', initially slated for a Q4 2011 release. ''X Rebirth'' will take place in the X Universe after a major catastrophe (the shutdown of the series' network of jump gates, thus starting a new chapter in the X Universe separate from the original plot line. ''Rebirth'' missed its first two proposed release dates (Q4 2011 and 2012) and was eventually released 15 November 2013.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control Video game companies of Germany Video game development companies