User blog comment:Fotis.salonikios1/Lab X-18/@comment-10507735-20160208070704

Could be.

I'm a bit hazy on X8 - been a long time.. but it might have been that after about 7 yrs in development (actually less time than LA ffs) the GSC higher ups were getting a tad uneasy that there wasn't a game released that was earning its keep...

Decided to prune the game a bit and the rest is history - or SoC.

With a prequel and a sequel released comparatively soon after employing the cut out parts (sort of)

Byte Me (talk) 07:07, February 8, 2016 (UTC) (just my 2c€)