My favourite since 1993: Wing Commander Privateer
http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=16300

The same reason why platformers, 2-d fighting games (i.e. street fighter), adventure games (i.e. Sam and Max, Kings Quest) 2-d shooters (i.e ikaruga) and 2-d side scrolling games (i.e double dragaon, Viewtiful Joe) aren't made too much anymore: Its the changing tastes of gamers.

Now everyone is on the WW2 FPS bandwagon. I wonder what the next fad is going to be. I hope it goes back to side scrolling games again. I really miss games like Double Dragon.

Wing Commander III was one of my childhood favorites, and Freespace 2 was one of the first games I played with the new computer I got in early 2000, so it really blew me away.

It's a real shame the genre died, but I guess it was just too hardcore for the Playstation generation of gamers to appreciate. ;__;

I have been complaining about this for years (along with pretty much everything else).

Give me X-Wing, give me Tie Fighter, give me Freespace, give me Descent. Not all of these franchises need to come back but just one decent space fighter would be nice.

I think space combat is the hardest of hardcore genres. My parents and girlfriend will watch me play and have absolutely no clue what I'm doing or what I'm even trying to do. There's a lot of button memorization -- the games use practically the whole keyboard -- and there's also a huge need to manage all kinds of information coming at you simultaneously. It's a difficult genre to learn if you aren't 14 years old and don't have all day to devote to playing like I did when Tie Fighter was released. :)

Freelancer was the closest this genre came to being casual (you could even play it with a mouse!), and even that was fairly complicated.

Allegiance was one of the best multi-player games I've ever played. Why Microsoft never promoted or advanced it is a mystery to me.

Yes, I would be fine with just ONE...

Hell, Freespace 2 officially came out in 1999. Most of the greats we keep listing are from the 90s...it's just sad. And I don't think I've heard of any big games being developed currently.

I think we're finally getting over WW2 FPSs...clearly many gamers are sick of it. Modern warfare and futuristic FPSs are popular right now.

 I think a lot of simplification could be done with a nice HUD and grouped controls on the keyboard.  They could definitely make a futuristic space fighter that appeals to less hardcore gamers...I'd be happy with that even...they don't even make those...

Freespace 2 Colossus (I think that's what it was called) was brilliant!

IMO they tried that with Freelancer (see my edit above, sorry bad timing) and achieved some success.  Unfortunately not enough to keep the genre alive.  I'm curious to know if X-Wing Alliance was a profitable venture for Lucasarts.  They put a lot of resources into its development, good voice acting, accurate modeling, etc.