X-Rebirth: The story of the failed console game

[Lorien]

Has anyone actually sat back and thought of this scenario - some of the software libraries that egosoft used during development were from a third party which has the capabilities built into it that allows for cross-platform development, but whilst never actually used for the game there's no way to remove any references to the xbox360 from the final build?

I bet if you were to look deep enough into games created purely for the PC using Unity you'd find references to android and iOS calls/etc. which is just the same scenario as people are talking about here

[ragod]

Has anyone actually sat back and thought of this scenario - some of the software libraries that egosoft used during development were from a third party which has the capabilities built into it that allows for cross-platform development, but whilst never actually used for the game there's no way to remove any references to the xbox360 from the final build?

I bet if you were to look deep enough into games created purely for the PC using Unity you'd find references to android and iOS calls/etc. which is just the same scenario as people are talking about here

There are no third party libraries, it took them 7 years to make this ****** little game because they built it all up from scratch in house.

This was a console port, a crappy one.

[dev0]

Has anyone actually sat back and thought of this scenario - some of the software libraries that egosoft used during development were from a third party which has the capabilities built into it that allows for cross-platform development, but whilst never actually used for the game there's no way to remove any references to the xbox360 from the final build?

I bet if you were to look deep enough into games created purely for the PC using Unity you'd find references to android and iOS calls/etc. which is just the same scenario as people are talking about here

Who are you trying to fool? yourself?

[Poacher886]

Y'know they sad the exact same thing about Total War Rome II. Exact same rumours, I repeat, exact same rumours. That it was a future console port in disguise. But the developers of that game have yet to announce anything about a console version, months after release.

Don't jump to conclusions so quickly! Can't people accept that unfortunately a PC game can just simply be poorly designed these days without jumping to ridiculous conclusions? Why do tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists have to always go back to the same old trope of 'poorly designed PC game must mean console port!'. No, it's just a poorly designed PC game, not a console port.[/i]

Err, yea, they had the exact same rumours about Rome2.....


....And CA just announced "Rome2, coming to a Steambox near you soon"

!!!!!!

[Mr$nake]

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.

Either way, this is the end result we got two days ago, we can all see. The reason Rebirth smells like a failed console port and not an X game, because it wasn't meant to be one. It was meant to be a different title with different gameplay on a different system entirely. A tale of desperation and bad decisions. Now, I don't claim to know the real story, but this is the best I could come up with after my research..

Agree!
Nothing more to say!

Auch interessant:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=348266&start=0

[Poet1960]

Bernd mentioned in an interview that they had X3 running on an Xbox360...

So, alternative look, could it not just be reusing existing artefacts in the new version which had already been altered during that stage - rather than "it was made specifically for a console, then something went wrong and made for PC". It is also a plausible explanation.

I don't think anyone who's posting here is going to believe it though - the minds are made up irrespective of what may be the real reason. Any explanation other than "Okay, it was" will be deemed to be a lie. Which is sad.

It is clear the UI has been made to be console friendly though - which is what Bernd also said.

That might fly IF the game worked perfectly with mouse/keyboard/joystick, but in reality, it works just fine and dandy with the game pad and less so with the other three.

Smoking gun in my opinion.

[jerryt87]

I just can't describe the dissapointment i'm feeling...
After such a long time you are pushing your fanbase over the cliff to make room for some kids?

SOE did the same thing to Star Wars Galaxies with their CU. Didn't listen to the base. They wanted new players, and thought dumbing it down was the way to go. Huge numbers left the game, and they didn't get the massive influx they thought they would.

[eliseeff]

Rebirth was never meant to be a PC game.

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[steos]

Has anyone actually sat back and thought of this scenario - some of the software libraries that egosoft used during development were from a third party which has the capabilities built into it that allows for cross-platform development, but whilst never actually used for the game there's no way to remove any references to the xbox360 from the final build?

I bet if you were to look deep enough into games created purely for the PC using Unity you'd find references to android and iOS calls/etc. which is just the same scenario as people are talking about here

The fxh files all have a copyright notice at the top identifying them to be property of Egosoft.
It may very well be that it was originally meant to be developed for PC and XBox, but considering the KB binding problems and the fact that the game plays best with a gamepad coupled with 7 years development time, use of DX9 only, unreadably small text at full HD, the FOV and "console-y" graphics and so on I think the OP is spot on with his theory of a failed console attempt.

Edit: To be fair, it may very well be that they just reused the shader stuff and as has been said somewhere else Egosoft said that they have been running X3 on the XBox and I couldn't find any other XBox references with a quick grep. However, together with all the other facts, I think the OPs theory is quite likely. And regarding Hanlons razor, I don't believe Egosoft is that stupid and going by Occams razor I think it actually is the more likely explanation.

[ragod]

Rebirth was never meant to be a PC game.

Readme
Readme 2

That is what is being done here.

They designed the game for Consoles, that is stupidity, not malice.

And the fact that there are well over a thousand references to the xbox 360 throughout all portions of the game, not just the controls, puts the burden of proof on the fact that this WAS a console game.

And no, there doesnt need to be ANY mention of an xbox 360 in the SHADERS files in a custom built engine. just because they are putting in gamepad controls.

[Ambushclose]

Well they might be looking at a lawsuit if they don't deliver on what they promised. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... -aliens-cm

[amtct]

The more I look at it the more it looks like a console port.I don't know what went wrong but this game was designed for consoles.The low rez textures ,the simplified menus ,the low FOV ...this is a console port.Pretty sure they start working for PC version 2 years ago when they had ingame footage but no gameplay .

[Divinity1990]

Everything points at a failed console game but I doubt ES will ever admit it.

[Lazerius]

What research? Honestly, what research?

Scouring the forums, reading countless threads, dev interviews and online articles dated back to that period, looking up and correlating dates and factoids, etc. I've been in this profession for 8 years now, I'm a games journalist, reviewer and editor for a gaming magazine, I know how to do research.

Still, as I said before, this is mostly speculation, I don't know the whole story, only the devs know that.

Blogger =/= Journalist.

[Zorvan]

Watch a cutscene from X2, such as in Kho's office. Now watch an X:R cutscene. Watch the animations/movement of the characters.

They simply added more polygons / higher res "bodies"son X2's skeletel rigging. It's a joke they couldn't even find a first year graphics student to do the character modeling work, they had to cobble "bondo" onto 10 year old stuff.

[dev0]

Everything points at a failed console game but I doubt ES will ever admit it.

Ye, but You know the thing is we feel that our butts hurts because we know someone fu**ed us in the ass. I am sure they can see it too that we know and feel that.
If they would come clean and say "Dear users YES you are right, everything in this thread is true, we needed money to make company going that's why we released such a broken game,it was our mistake , we are ashamed because of that BUT now when we got some funds we will be working night and day to get this game as close to X:AP as possible (mechanics/options) while adding new content and removing bad designs,keeping nice outdoor graphics, this time closely listening to what our clients want."
After hearing something like that and seeing it happening maybe that pain in the ass would go away after some time...
But sadly i don't see it coming.
I am not playing X:R anymore, waste of time playing something that broken, if this design will stay i don't know if i will start to play even after they will fix all the bugs.

[Rez]

An inevitable port to Linux for Steam Machines and their controller is the theory I'm invested in. It would explain why ES didn't abandon the controller-oriented UI after they scrapped plans for the 360.

No one expected it for TW:R2, a game much less suited for a controller than X:R, and look what happened:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/08/ ... ne-release

Everything points to a failed console game early on in development. Everything now points toward Steam Machines as a salvageable alternative for ES, at least until they go on record saying otherwise.

[RWolf]

What research? Honestly, what research?

Scouring the forums, reading countless threads, dev interviews and online articles dated back to that period, looking up and correlating dates and factoids, etc. I've been in this profession for 8 years now, I'm a games journalist, reviewer and editor for a gaming magazine, I know how to do research.

Still, as I said before, this is mostly speculation, I don't know the whole story, only the devs know that.

Blogger =/= Journalist.

Bloggers can also be journalist and vice versa. Blogging is the platform, nothing more. If he calls himself a journalist, and has an audience for information gathering and delivery of compiled information, then who are you to assume what he is or isnt? Are you not just looking for an excuse to confirm your own personal bias?

[Wyeth]

Is this game really going to be able to be modded? Khan on the Steam forums wrote:

Exept the fact that the game runs off of .xtml, requireing 10 lines of code that in other languages is only one line. This along with the models being hardcoded, really limits what can and cannot be modded into the game. Alot of top moders already said screw this and refuse to work on the title.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/2870/disc ... 537829813/

I really hope it can be modded otherwise there's little hope for this title moving forward.

[Bullet_Force]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet but how about the rather small file size. Rebirth the much hyped new game with all its fancy graphics is smaller in file size then previous games coming in at 4gb something to download.

That's a very similar size to say the maximum storage space of a DVD which is how you install games on a certain Microsoft product...

This combined with the fact that they left a couple strings referring to the XBox 360 in a shaders file seems to confirm it for me. I can't think of any reason why those strings would be there unless it was a console port of an attempt at one.