Hi-Rez Studios, the company that brought you Global Agenda, now owns the rights to the Tribes franchise and its putting the revered franchise to use as we speak. As Kotaku reported today, Hi-Rez is currently developing a brand new Tribes game, which will be the first game in the franchise since the story-focused Tribes: Vengeance in 2004.
But this latest and as yet unnamed Tribes title won’t just be a multiplayer-focused shooter like the previous Tribes entries (except for Vengeance). On the contrary, in its continuing effort to make the word "Shooter/MMO" an actual genre distinction instead of just weird marketing terminology (there's no concept for it on the site, so as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist) the new Tribes game will be just that: a persistent, online multiplayer game where up to 100 players can battle at once with vehicles, classic weapons, and the series-standard jet packs. Developed on a “heavily modified” Unreal Engine 3, Hi-Rez hopes start alpha testing the game early next year. And, hey, if you’re one of the top ranking Global Agenda players, you’ll get priority access to the alpha testing! That's something.
No word yet if ex-APB players get a special discount for buying the new Tribes game. All Hi-Rez is sharing at the moment is the barest bones of an announcement and a few basic design details, so we really don't have a sense of what this game will look like at the end of development. But hey, a classic PC game franchise is getting its next long-awaited iteration! And that iteration comes from the team that made Global Agenda. This is going to go well.
