X2: The Console Threat?

At first glance, X2: The Threat hardly seems a likely candidate for a console port. It's a massive, sprawling space epic along similar lines to Elite, designed by a small team with help from thousands of eager fans who contributed ideas, items - even entire sectors of space - and it focuses on the sort of empire building pursuits normally confined to a strictly PC audience. It's an MMORPG without other people, some claim, which should just about clarify the vastness of the experience for most people.

However, according to publisher Deep Silver, a console version is very much a possibility. Obviously developer Egosoft is keen to rectify some of the problems that plague the current PC version (and has already made some headway with patches) before the game appears on any other platform, and may even add a new mode to make the game more accessible - perhaps by allowing the player to start out with a basic empire already up and running - but any changes are yet to be set in stone. When pressed on that last point, a Deep Silver spokesman likened the idea to the start of Metal Gear Solid 2, which gave you a choice between starting off with Solid Snake on the tanker, or diving into the Big Shell as Raiden the layman.

It has to be said though that any fundamental alterations to the formula would be in addition to, rather than a replacement for, the original game's sandbox approach to space exploration, which drew comparisons to Elite when it was first shown off. X2 has polarised opinions in some quarters, but the vast undulating nebulae of the PC version are already awash with wannabe Palpatines, and the game itself is effectively the best-selling PC title of the moment (excluding the latest Championship Manager institution), so there's no desire from either Egosoft or publisher Deep Silver to mess with what works, and no question of dumbing it down for console thickos.

Although it's too early to say when X2 might appear on a home console, it is definitely something that both Egosoft and Deep Silver have been considering, and judging by our spokesman's excited tones we can probably expect to hear more about X2 console in the coming months.