X4: Foundations, the space sim that lets you take an empire to war, will let you just talk things out in its next update

There’s a whole bunch of games set in space that let you duke it out in dogfights, form strategies around entire fleets, terraform planets, all often pretty violent acts. So, I found it very funny to see X4: Foundations at the Triple-I showcase today, which received a trailer for its upcoming Diplomacy update which is literally about just talking things out. Seriously, when it says that it’s introducing diplomacy it means it, as when it arrives you’ll be able to send diplomats to negotiate and forge alliances so that you don’t have to jump to war right off the bat.

There’s a new facility, the Embassy, that you’ll be able to send said diplomats to chat with other factions. On top of that there’s Agents, who can “be deployed on independent assignments to achieve diplomatic objectives within the X universe.” Details about the update are pretty slim outside of that, the trailer didn’t give all that much away, not even a release date outside of the fact it’s coming in 2025. The update will be free at the very least! Not bad for a game that’ll be seven years old this November.

From an outsider’s POV, it does also tickle me that this game is so old yet in a game about building a space empire, trading, fighting, all that jazz you’d expect from a sci-fi game of its ilk, the game’s inhabitants never thought to just talk to each other. Oh well! Better late than never.

It’s probably worth pointing out that X4: Foundations is actually on sale right now, as it’s only £12/ $15 down from £40/ $50. You’ve got until April 16th to get it at that price, no need to rush, but it might be good to get it now ahead of this upcoming update if it takes your fancy.