OCT. 25, 2010 • More than a decade after the trend-sending Starsiege Tribes online FPS multiplayer game from Dynamix was making a name for itself, Global Agenda developer Hi-Rez Studios has acquired ownership of the property. Hi-Rez plans to release an MMO based on the franchise called Tribes Universe. Alpha testing will commence in 2011. Three factions, will be featured with support for large-scale PVP battles of more than 100 players. The world will be persistent without instances, allowing for player territory control.
Impact: Hi-Rez was having technical difficulties in adding large-scale PvP combat to its Global Agenda property. It became obvious the team would be better off creating a new property to meet their needs. The more they parsed their features list, the more they realized what they wanted to build looked a lot like Starsiege Tribes. Why not acquire the Tribes rights and set about producing a modern update instead? That model has worked very well for Bethesda and the Fallout franchise. With many solid, if dormant, game properties out there, we expect to see more studios dredging up past superstars and polishing them up in the coming years.
