Has this ever been discussed and considered by FFG?
What I'm talking about creating a new gaming universe (no license fees etc) like Terrinoth is for fantasy, but for sci-fi/space opera. All kind of games could be created around this with much freedom (with GW stuff going the sci-fi is represented by Star Wars which is an expensive and tightly controlled license).
I guess on the minus side is that they DO have Star Wars and it would be hard to compete with that setting, but on the plus side they would have much more freedom and no licensing costs or issues.
You could do the whole gamut of games like card and dice, but mainly I'd be interested in a Descent type game + a Runewars Miniatures type skirmish game.
Maybe use such a new IP to launch a "Descent 3.0" ruleset, more freeform (the app functionality built into the rules, in addition to the traditional campaign and single mission modes. Maybe use the IE idea of unlocking and incorporating whatever add-on packs you buy by including their missions.
Once that game establishes the worlds and factions and the look/feel of the game the next step would be a skirmish battle game.
If it all works, maybe a LCG or TCG based on the IP, expand the battle side with a X-Wing/Armada type game etc.

Has there ever been any rumors of official ideas like this?

Some will of course think this is a stupid idea, but hopefully some will also think it might be a good one.

Funny you should ask this (almost a month ago but still at the top of this sub-forum with no replies), as I was just thinking about this very topic, albeit with a different question in mind.

Short answer: They already have Twilight Imperium. And people still love it. They just need to finally dust it off. And in fact I am of the strong opinion they really very much should once they've established the Runewars miniatures game. Partly to fill the 40K-shaped hole in their portfolio, partly as a contingency plan for the event of losing the Star Wars license. If they want X-Wing and/or Armada players to move to another universe, they ought to flesh it out more beforehand.

Long answer:

Fantasy Flight currently basically owns six setting IPs of any notable worth:

• Medieval fantasy - Terrinoth
• Interstellar sci-fi - Twilight Imperium
• Near-future cyberpunk - Android
• Near-past horror - Arkham Horror
• Far-eastern fantasy - Legend of the Five Rings (with bloody awful pre-WWW researched Japanese* that will never get fixed due to traditionalists)
• Near-eastern fantasy - Legend of the Burning Sands (presumably with the same level of Arabic - if they ever revive it)

Which is a very healthy spread IMNSHO, covering pretty much every popular genre with little overlap. I guess there's still room for a steampunk universe and an urban fantasy one, but that's pretty much it.

Furthermore they hold the board and card game rights to the two biggest novel-based fantasy franchises - The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire - which should be safe for the foreseeable future, but to be perfectly blunt, nothing lasts forever. And they've already gone through the two biggest pairs of easily "FFG-ifiable" game-based IPs - Warcraft/Starcraft and Warhammer Fantasy/Warhammer 40,000 - and while they're currently basically printing money with the continuously biggest pop culture IP since its inception (i.e. Star Wars) and it's hard to imagine any logical reason for either party to ever let go of this licensing agreement, mice are fickle creatures and Disney is already hampering them out of corporate head-in-butt syndrome. So while they had and have a few more (mid-tier) game/film licenses that could disappear - and have done so - at virtually a moment's notice, there really isn't much elsewhere to head for them other than making good use of their generally excellent reputation and name recognition and pushing their original IPs.

*Mostly inverted word order and some utterly ridiculous prominent names. I wouldn't mind at all if the setting used a totally made up language, but it does not.