The 'Screen Play' blog in this week's Brisbane times recalls the heydey of the critically acclaimed and much-loved LucasArts / Totally Games X-Wing series.
In the 11 years since [X-Wing Alliance], there has been nothing more from LucasArts in that vein, and the genre itself has faded to little more than a memory. Wing Commander's final gasp was the long-delayed and ultimately disappointing Freelancer, released in 2003 after more than four years of development. The last bastion of the space combat sim is the venerable X series, which reached its fifth release in 2008 with X3: Terran Conflict, a flawed game that failed to set the world on fire, let alone the whole galaxy.
D-Rod's teaser from last year is also recalled.
The X-Wing fan / Modding community is very much still alive and well.
I still hope for 'Special Editions' of the X-Wing games at some point, perhaps leading into a whole new game from Larry Holland and Totally Games.
Source: Brisbane Times
On a side note I always considered the term space combat sim to be very wrong, the X-Wing/Freespace/Wing Commander games were not space simulations like Elite or Independence War which had real space flight physics.
They were slightly more sophisticated action games like the Ace Combat series on game consoles (substitute planes for spaceships). Therein lies the problem, the PC space fairing cousin to this genre never took root on game consoles and the Ace Combat series is still going and are occasional new titles like Ubisoft HAWX.
In order to see X-Wing games again they would have to done on games consoles and simplified just a little.
I would only want one of X-Wing and TIE Fighter if it has iMuse in it. Those versions with the stock Star Wars soundtrack just weren't the same... those dynamic tracks definitely made the games.