I had a conversation in ’11 I just remembered …

[…] I would probably point out though that it was never originally intended that the game would have loads of back-story; that was just something that was worked on because we had some time available and it was massively fun to do. Certainly, the stuff that appears online at Wipeoutzone was never intended to see the light of day; it was purely background material that was supplied because a film production company had expressed interest in developing a Wipeout concept. […]
(quote slightly altered for anonymity reasons)