I see two eventualities.
1) In the near future we can see any number of 'small' games similar to Wing Commander Arena or Lord of Ultima.
The development process for these titles works very differently from what you assume: the impetus for these games is not to revive a franchise but to fill a particular niche. The call from above is for a type of game: an XBLA dance game, a browser-based FarmVille competitor, etc. Particular producers then have control over the project... and those that remember Wing Commander often try to involve the IP on their own. This is what happened with Arena--EA wanted a Japanese-style spaceship shooter and their producer pitched the idea of using the Wing Commander world.
These projects are sort of like fish eggs--for every zillion that are launched, one or two grow into released games. They try to involve Wing Commander *constantly*... in fact, I've been involved in maybe half a dozen in the past two years. I was even designer on a browser-based version of Privateer. I had an amazing time putting together the lore and figuring out how to do a game with absolutely no resources. The project died over contract issues, which is probably for the best since everyone would have *hated* it. That's what people don't understand, though--it's not some attempt to ruin Wing Commander by making it a different type of game, it's an attempt to salute the series when no one else is.
2) In the next several years we should see a major Wing Commander 'relaunch' on the part of Electronic Arts. This is the big deal we want, in the same manner as C&C or Dead Space. The one where they care as a company about Wing Commander as a brand. Think lots of money being spent on a core game and lots of licensing creating novels and DVDs and mobile phone games and so on.
I'll offer you several absolute certanties that you probably won't like, though:
- It will not be a FMV game. I'm sorry, it just isn't going to happen, not in a million years. Yes, Command and Conquer brought back FMV for intentionally cheesy cutscenes (and lost a boatload of money doing so) but that's as far as it will ever get. We will not see anything like Wing Commander 3 or 4's use of live action again. Folks will grouse but I don't think they'll cry over the end result: familiar actors voicing fancy (likely younger) CGI versions of themselves.
- It will be a console game with a possible PC port. But The Sims sold a majillion copies on PC! That proves it's a viable platform! The night nurse is taking my loose change! Wah! Sorry. In order for a game as expensive as a Wing Commander relaunch to sell and in order for it to hope to enter the public consciousness and be a big deal (think Halo or Gears of War) in 2010 it has to be an Xbox/PlayStation game first and a PC game maybe third (or 99th, after cell phones, Windows Phones, Blackberries, Palm Pilots, iPhones, iPads, iTouches, Zunes, BluRay Players, GameBoys, 3D GameBoys, Playstation Portables and those Playstation Portables that don't actually play games because they forgot to include a disk drive).
- It's not going to be steeped in Wing Commander lore like you want. But what happens to the Nephilim? Lets play as a Firekkan! Will Jason Bondarevsky ever find love? What was the deal with that super armor from the Victory Streak manual? Sorry. I care about all that shit, too. I care so hard. When I'm involved in a project I stick it everywhere I can... but only because the people playing Arena or Privateer-in-a-Browser are supposed to be you guys. The three million warm bodies you need to buy Wing Commander Redux don't. Expect the series to be boiled down to the *recognizable* elements -- Tiger's Claw, Chris Blair, Kilrathi. That might mean a remake of Wing Commander I, it might mean a prequel of some sort... but it won't be a sequel to Prophecy, it won't be a midquel that answers lost questions, it won't be anything that isn't part of the Kilrathi War.
ALSO... you likely aren't going to see many more 'cheap' Wing Commander re-releases. There may be a few special instances, like the WC4 PSX release... but in most cases the source material and the desire doesn't exist to shore up the games... and they aren't stable enough to put out through modern services in a presentable manner. EA is being very cautious about going with Steam or developing their own Steam-like service... and even when that happens, as we learned with that subscription game download service, stuff like Privateer just isn't in a state that can be sold. (Remember: you will happily put up with those few-hourly EMS crashes... Joe Modern Gamer will not.)
What can you do? No internet petitions, please. But we live in the age of social networks and EA producers are watching them. It can't hurt to post to their Facebook group or @ them on Twitter whenever the topic comes up. Advocate on your own rather than through some entirely visible organized structure--remind them that Wing Commander is out there.
Oh right, you meant that if Lucasarts isn't going to exploit their X-Wing heritage with a new space sim, chances are slim for Wing Commander. Sadness.
I know this wasn't your particular opinion, but it's worth noting that X-Wing is a weird, weird outlier in terms of "space sim" development. It is not in any way the game LucasArts particularly wanted... they would have liked a cinematic Wing Commander-style arcade-derived game, which they have since developed for the Star Wars IP (in bulk).
The story goes that LucasArts' reps saw Wing Commander's first demo at Comdex and immediately went back to their hotel room, printed up an X-WING COMING SOON sign and got on the phone to beg Larry Holland (then developing succesful World War II air combat games for them as an independant) the moon and complete creative control over the project. What they got was a strangely serious almost slow-paced space game that became a surprise hit and lead to sequels... but in 2010 with a million other succesful Star Wars lines and a newfound desire not to oversaturate the IP (hah-hah), there's very little impetus to bring back Totally Games at some really high price point to build a new X-Wing.
(It's also possible that Bridge Commander was a nail in the coffin for Star Wars space sims from Holland. Mr. Lucas is known for holding grudges when it comes to his licensors working on 'competing' franchises. I can tell you from personal experience that he was FURIOUS at FOX for trying to attach the Phantom Menace trailer to Wing Commander... it's also been a long standing claim that he doesn't let major Star Wars licensors bid on Star Trek properties (no Star Trek toys from Kenner, no Star Trek books from Random House).)
I'm sure we're all hoping that Arena was EA's way to test the waters...
Sadly, it was... to an extent. That was the hope of the game's producer and pre-release buzz was so positive that he was authorized to start prototyping a "classic Wing Commander" followup. Sales were bad and that project died.