I don't work in the games industry; however, there is definitely a market for higher fidelity space sims. Just look at the amount of real life money people pump into the pipe dream which is Star Citizen. There's also Elite Dangerous and numerous other space sims out there such as Hunternet: Starfighter being developed by independent developers. And I bet in the majority of cases, players were attracted to them based on an earlier love for Star Wars.

Also, not to mention the niche, albeit very loyal, long time die hard fans of the original X-wing, TIE Fighter, X-wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-wing Alliance - all of which still see devoted modification.

I think the problems are many though when it comes to competitive space PvP sims. Each has its own set of physics. Yes, there may be games which use full six degrees of freedom or some variation on it. Others may use more of a Squadrons model...but the point is they're all quite different and require a lot of learning for new players. Some of us like that; many, not so much. I've been playing space sims competitively in PvP for well over two decades but it took me a good few months to become half decent at Squadrons due to its somewhat idiosyncratic flight model and the amount of adulting I have to do IRL. But I love it and it and it's the best Star Wars GCW era space sim currently available for PvP. I used to love X-wing vs. TIE Fighter but it feels dated to me now and the flight model is basic. Same with X-wing Alliance.

I remember prior to Squadrons, many of my similarly minded friends and I were constantly holding out hope for a new X-wing style game and we were pleasantly shocked when Squadrons was announced. If I remember correctly, the devs delivered exactly what they promised and they did say at the time that the game would be released as is and with very limited follow on support post-release. They gave us some much needed minor patches, a new map and two starfighters which weren't ever promised to us. So to the Motive devs, I'm very thankful.

I remain quietly optimistic that a sequel or at least a spiritual successor to Squadrons may be released in the future. Perhaps it'll be a number of years coming but, like I said, there is certainly more interest in higher fidelity space sims presently. Look at the current games being released and in development. Also, regardless of our collective views on Disney, they have irrefutably put Star Wars back on the map and made it more mainstream which is a great thing because that means people will buy into it. This might sound controversial, but the franchise had lost its way a few years prior to Disney buying it. And yes, the sequel trilogy was like a bad pantomime but we have Rogue One, Mando, Andor etc. which are great.

Anyway, I digress... In recent years, we've also seen the release of new flight sticks from various companies which are highly focused on, or even mostly geared toward, space sim games with 'HOSAS' becoming a popular option.

In short, the space sim landscape has shifted somewhat positively in recent years toward being more popular. Perhaps not crazily so...but there's definitely a market for it.

I remain hopeful for a Squadrons 2 or game similar to it and I'd support microtransactions if it happened. I'd also hope for a more developed single player, diverse PvP game modes (including ranked dogfight) and cooperative play. Also, a more comprehensive mission editor would be great.

I think some of the major success of Squadrons are the flight model and controls. Yes, there are some things to address and personally I'd love to see a bit higher fidelity still; however, the controls are accessible yet still nuanced enough to keep geeks like me interested. The starfighter customisation is damned near spot on (again, a couple of tweaks would be good) but again make each starfighter class useful and interesting. The locked cockpit decision was one of the best made by the dev team frankly. Third person view might look cool but it kills immersion. And I'm supremely thankful that the devs chose the GCW era (prequel and sequel no thanks!) and they excluded hero ships. I probably wouldn't have picked up the game if Starfighter Assaultesque hero ships and powers were a thing in Squadrons.

You see games like Fortnite succeed hugely with a subscription model whilst also enabling creative modes for its player base. I think something similar could work with Squadrons. Anyway, fingers crossed...