X-Rebirth: The story of the failed console game

[Psyphormer]

Lets pirate this game people. LINK REMOVED

[Hob Anagerik]

Wow. You are still here.

[Divinity1990]

X:R is so bad it's not even worth pirating.

[Cakefish]

Go read the thread before you call anyone tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. The name xbox, in particular xbox360, figures over thousand times in the gamefiles. Everything except Egosofts claims agree with the theory that the game was originally developed for a now outdated console. The evidence is pretty damning.

The game supports the Xbox 360 gamepad controller, are you surprised it therefore contains references to the Xbox in the files? Seems logical to me that it would.

[Chips]

The code has nothing to do with X3, it's a completely new engine.

It's shaders...

[Swibble]

Come on this is so obvious. Just look at the file size. There's no other reason to compress it down so much.

[Typee]

The game supports the Xbox 360 gamepad controller, are you surprised it therefore contains references to the Xbox in the files? Seems logical to me that it would.

Nonsense, the references are for xbox shaders and such, not gamepad.

#ifdef _XBOX
// unused in Xbox case
#define sRGB ;
#define LIN ;
#else
#define sRGB ;SRGBTEXTURE=true;
#define LIN ;SRGBTEXTURE=false;
#endif

// Define different vFace for Xbox and PC
#ifdef _XBOX
#define VFACESIGN(face) sign(face)
#else
#define VFACESIGN(face) sign(-face)
#endif

The Xbox pad is standard Xinput.

[Kitrich]

The game supports the Xbox 360 gamepad controller, are you surprised it therefore contains references to the Xbox in the files? Seems logical to me that it would.

Yeah, you're totally right! If it didn't have all those references to xbox shaders the controller wouldn't work properly...wait, what?

-
Beaten by Typee like a red headed stepchild.

[Cakefish]

Mmmm OK I guess that that is a bit more compelling evidence. But I don't think Egosoft have the funding or manpower to make a port for consoles. Plus, how on Earth could the Xbox 360 run a game that demands so much CPU power to run? The i7's on PCs run circles around the Xbox 360's CPU and even they are struggling with this game! I don't think it would ever be possible to port this game to consoles in it's current form.

They may have left it in there in the hopes of a future port (seeing as this game was originally set for 2011 release) but then gave up as Xbox 360 neared the end of it's lifecycle? That could be plausible. I think the CEO said they have dabbled with the idea of a console version. So maybe it was a pre-emptive thing? What I highly doubt is that they were solely focused on Xbox version and completely ignored a PC version only to then do PC version after - they would never have deliberately decided to not make a PC version as with the continual rise of Steam that would be like just throwing money away. They wouldn't abandon a platform which has proven to be best suited for space sims and which they have enjoyed high success on previously. No, they are smarter than that.

You may have convinced me that there was a possibility that a console release was planned at some point in time but you will never convince me that they outright decided to abandon the PC platform only to then come back after the console version flopped. It's far more likely that they merely dabbled in the prospect and tested it on a couple of Xbox dev kits or placed pre-emptive code in the game so that it would be easier to port later down the road or even started developing both versions in parallel. But to not ever plan to release a PC version in the first place? Never.

[Skillionaire]

Thanks OP, this is exactly what I had assumed.
And thanks Egosoft for the lies and deception.

You could have folded, gone indy and taken X4 to kickstarter.
Your fans would have supported you as they always have.

Now you have lost your fans.
Have fun with that.

EXACTLY!

[UnclePaulie]

OP sound right to me, I was in total shock the last couple days at how bad it was and is .

Today I said **** it start a new game with an open mind and just play the game without comparing it to the other X titles, it is still shit, the game is broken in so many ways its scary . Doing missions offers no fun at all, travelling the endless stream of tunnels is terrible and slow, the so called mini game in them is pathetic, lets stare at the back of an extremely close ship or just cruise along myself in a lone tunnel, no thanks it takes even longer .

I have tried my best with this game and that's it ............. I am done with it, it is terrible any way you look at it, as a part of the X series or stand alone game .

2 1/2 days of gameplay for £40 ............... **** you Egosoft I will take my hard earned cash elsewhere in the future, 7 years for this pile of crap .

[Hob Anagerik]

No, I expect it was intended for the console with the aim to release a port. Then when the console version was not picked up, or however it was decided the console version was not going to happen, they had to do further development on the title to make it more acceptable to PC users.

It looks like they made some horrible decisions to speed things up, such as the copy/paste station interiors. Have you seen those parts of the station that appear to be prison lock-ups? You know, the ones you can just walk into and then find it filled with traders? Just nuts.

There is of course the possibility that these rumours are all false, that there was never any intention of there being a console version and this was a PC release all along. If that is true then it is far worse as Egosoft no longer have the excuse of a failed console game to excuse their design choices and completely ignored what made their early games great and kept PC gamers coming back for more.

Either way it goes, Egosoft cannot come out of this looking good.

[dev0]

So then, I broke down and decided to cheat. Injected enough money to get a station going to see if I can get back into the positive given enough time running the station. Nope, you can't control your prices, even after hiring a manager, you can't control... anything. I thought maybe the economy was automated in such a way that the prices adjust themselves or something. So, I left the station running overnight and it hemorrhaged over 20,000,000 credits. The lack of control is staggering, even if you did manage to get a set of stations up legitimately, there is no way to set up a supply line between them. I am not sure what else I can really try. Anyone with ideas? Maybe I didn't try hard enough and I've come to wrong conclusions. Please, feel free to correct me.
I just don't see how plopping a bunch of ships and systems into space and hoping that the AI won't run away with your credits is fun. =\

It's from other thread... Then really i ask you all what they were doing for 7 years? If mechanics is so simplified, you don't have control over things then what to do in this game? How long before you get bored with ONE ship and other just following you with no real control over them? how long before you get bored with picking up crates (really..?)... How long before you get bored with constantly clicking in trade menu to make 3 trades for one ship.. and over again.. and over again... ?

I am afraid that this game is just so simplified and so many mechanics and options are cut out that it's just.... boring..

[Hoki]

Now, what exactly took place next is quite unclear, but for some reason, the new console game's production hit a brick wall somewhere around 2010. Either it wasn't accepted by Microsoft for release, maybe the game failed to meet expectation or something else happened that prevented the game to be released on the console.

Microsoft and Sony have higher quality control, Steam has none it seems.

I'm hoping for a console that lacks internet capability in the future. No patching, if the game doesn't work or is deemed too buggy to be playable, full refund, producer/developer gets nothing.

[Cakefish]

No, I expect it was intended for the console with the aim to release a port. Then when the console version was not picked up, or however it was decided the console version was not going to happen, they had to do further development on the title to make it more acceptable to PC users.

It looks like they made some horrible decisions to speed things up, such as the copy/paste station interiors. Have you seen those parts of the station that appear to be prison lock-ups? You know, the ones you can just walk into and then find it filled with traders? Just nuts.

There is of course the possibility that these rumours are all false, that there was never any intention of there being a console version and this was a PC release all along. If that is true then it is far worse as Egosoft no longer have the excuse of a failed console game to excuse their design choices and completely ignored what made their early games great and kept PC gamers coming back for more.

Either way it goes, Egosoft cannot come out of this looking good.

I agree. You said it better than I could.

[gegsom]

Now, what exactly took place next is quite unclear, but for some reason, the new console game's production hit a brick wall somewhere around 2010. Either it wasn't accepted by Microsoft for release, maybe the game failed to meet expectation or something else happened that prevented the game to be released on the console.

Microsoft and Sony have higher quality control, Steam has none it seems.

I'm hoping for a console that lacks internet capability in the future. No patching, if the game doesn't work or is deemed too buggy to be playable, full refund, producer/developer gets nothing.

Well well, if Ride to Hell : Retribution made it to the Xbox... i don't see any reason for X-Rebirth not to . Lol.

[nqrott]

+1 OP
i come to the same conclusion after playing the game and look into the code of the files.

[Skillionaire]

Best review so far...
http://youtu.be/LxUx96-6-dw

WBAHAHHAHA

this review is epic lol

[dev0]

Best review so far...
http://youtu.be/LxUx96-6-dw

WBAHAHHAHA

this review is epic lol

LOL!

[spankahontis]

Now, what exactly took place next is quite unclear, but for some reason, the new console game's production hit a brick wall somewhere around 2010. Either it wasn't accepted by Microsoft for release, maybe the game failed to meet expectation or something else happened that prevented the game to be released on the console. This was a major blow for Egosoft and Deep Silver, since now they owned a more-or-less finished console game that was now worthless. I think after this Deep Silver still pushed for a release, since they didn't want 5 years of development funding to go to waste, so Egosoft started reworking the project and porting TNBT over to PC. In the spring of 2011 Deep Silver announced X-Rebirth for the PC and gave a release date for the fall of 2011. That was obviously far too optimistic, since even the worst console ports need way more than half a year to be finished. At this point I think Egosoft thought Rebirth was simply too console-y and fell way too far from the X series, so they started reworking the game mechanics to at least resemble an honest to god PC game. But missing so much with the canceled release, they needed another quick cash infusion, so they cobbled together Albion Prelude and tossed it out to get some more funds to finish the project, milking the X3 series for it's very last drops of sour milk. But as years passed and the hype started to vane, the devs turtled up in their shell with absolutely no news leaking out, the community slowly started to lose all faith, leaving the vaporware they were promised in 2011 for other games. Egosoft started to run out of options....and funding. Obviously there was no milking the X3 games anymore, so they had no choice but to hastily hammer together a release candidate from the wrecks of the half-console/half-PC development and send it out into the wild, hoping for the best. They knew full well the game was not finished, it was a Frankenstein monster straight from development hell. It wasn't an X game, but they still needed the X title because of the selling power. It was now or never, either they release something or the studio goes bust. Maybe Deep Silver pressured them to release, I dunno

It's no secret that Game Publishers like games that will sell as well as not be TOO addictive, because if you're too busy playing the same game for years, it means you're not buying other stuff of the publishers.

It reminds me of an interview with David Braben, where he said that his first game Elite was rejected by publishers because it was too addictive and the thought of a game having no beginning/end game was unthinkable to people with a business mind.
It was rejected because basically, it would of been too popular for it's own good!
Or should I say their profit margins as they care only about a game that guarantees their profit making future.