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[FYC]

Hi-Rez studios have dropped the flag of Tribes: Ascend development, and don’t seem to be in a hurry to pick it back up. In a statement on the free-to-play shooter’s forum, studio co-founder Todd Harris answered a Reddit question asking about the lack of recent updates. He confirmed that no major patches were planned, while the developers ski off to concentrate on their third-person lane pusher, Smite.

Here’s the full statement from Hi-Rez’s Todd Harris:

“There are no major dev updates planned for Tribes: Ascend in the next six months.

“For the next six months our primary development focus is SMITE. Beyond that it is GA2. And beyond that a TA2 would be more likely than a major update to TA; but to be clear no devs are currently working toward TA2.

“Per the development blog on our forums, the recent TA work has been Kate developing some additional maps. If time allows then these new TA maps (along with some bug-fixes) would be finalized and deployed but no committed date yet.

“We continue to support TA servers, online community events, tournaments with prizing, bringing Tribes to offline events like recent RTX and upcoming QuakeCon, and live-streaming.”

Traditionally, multiplayer games are transitory. With a few exceptions, we expect them to eventually wind down as people move on to newer things. For free-to-play games, it’s a slightly more complicated issue. To what extent do you need to run them as a continually expanding service? At what point do you move on if one isn’t justifying its continued development?

To be clear, Hi-Rez don’t seem to be abandoning the game. Although, in a competitive genre, that might just be a purely technical distinction. After six months, will there be much of a Tribes: Ascend community left to support?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/12/t...ceive-a-major-update-for-at-least-six-months/

 

[Gattsu25]

So now is a good time to start playing this game?

 

[JoeInky]

After six months, will there be much of a Tribes: Ascend community left to support?

Is there even much of a TA community now? I left because of all the f2p bullshit they were doing and haven't looked back since.

 

[spindoctor]

To be clear, Hi-Rez don’t seem to be abandoning the game

Sounds like that's exactly what they're doing.

edit - scratch that... they gave up on the game a long time ago.

 

[Delusibeta]

From an updates standpoint, game's dead. Perfect opportunity to discount the Complete Pack on the Steam sale, then. Yes, they did a GotY edition of a F2P game, and yes, it is complete AFAIK.

 

[TraBuch]

It's actually a great game and there's more than enough content in there already to justify downloading it. Sure, it'll be a while before you can get new weapons and stuff, but the Spinfusors are the best weapons anyways.

 

[erpg]

Meh. It's a complete game that is available as a complete package (despite being F2P). It'd be nice to get a few more maps but as a competitive shooter I think it's fine as it is.

 

[JWong]

Is there even much of a TA community now? I left because of all the f2p bullshit they were doing and haven't looked back since.

You mean the Pay2win stuff?

Reason I left too.

 

[ghst]

Meh. It's a complete game that is available as a complete package (despite being F2P). It'd be nice to get a few more maps but as a competitive shooter I think it's fine as it is.

where traditional paid RPG type online games go in to F2P retirement, it's entirely suitable for F2P FPS to go in to a traditional paid retirement.

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

Not every game has to have constant updates.

From a features standpoint, Tribes has been finished for a long time now.

 

[antitrop]

I forgot this game exists, even though I played it.

 

[DarkSoul520]

Not every game has to have constant updates.

From a features standpoint, Tribes has been finished for a long time now.

Sad thing is that we live in a world where constant updates is expected or people lose interest.

 

[OminoMichelin]

You mean the Pay2win stuff?

Reason I left too.

Do tell about this pay2Win stuff.

Hi-Rez tendency of making f2p games and then abandoning them is unnerving. I get that they are a small studio but I feel that they are wasting resources by rolling out new games while leaving leaving the older community in the dust.

 

[RedQueensAce]

I wish a more competent developer had this on their hands. It's a great game and really fun, but for a competitive game F2P was the wrong way to go.

 

[phosphor112]

That game is dead. I called it from the start. They took a solid game and shat on it every step of the way. Not even e-sports give a shit about it because of how trash and unbalanced the game is. In a last hope of saving grace, they made an option to actually "buy" the game, and added a bunch of things from Tribes 2.

By then the game was dead.

Still dead now.

I'd rather they drop the game altogether and someone else pick up the franchise.

 

[OminoMichelin]

I wish a more competent developer had this on their hands. It's a great game and really fun, but for a competitive game F2P was the wrong way to go.

This is a false correlation, is LoL not a competitive game for you?

That game is dead. I called it from the start. They took a solid game and shat on it every step of the way. Not even e-sports give a shit about it because of how trash and unbalanced the game is. In a last hope of saving grace, they made an option to actually "buy" the game, and added a bunch of things from Tribes 2.

By then the game was dead.

Still dead now.

I'd rather they drop the game altogether and someone else pick up the franchise.

People still play it in europe, it has a rather good community.

 

[legacyzero]

I should play this more.

 

[phosphor112]

I should play this more.

I'm sorry.

 

[Wiktor]

Shame. I quite liked this game. Especially in the early phases. It had it's problems, but I felt it captured the core of what made Tribes good. Shame.

Altough lol... I don't know how Hi-Rez expects people to spend money in GA and TA2 after this fiasco. Would be nice if somebody would reclaim the IP and just Kickstart traditional new entry.

 

[vazel]

This is no surprise, one of the devs previously said on reddit that the game was not profitable.

Although honestly, how much more can they add to the game. It's a complete game as is now.

 

[jerry113]

Meanwhile, Tribes 2 is alive and available for free.

 

[phosphor112]

Meanwhile, Tribes 2 is alive and available for free.

It's a shame really. They could have taken T2 and made it modern. Hammer out the things that made the game feel dated. Not just graphics. They could have done this and kept an extremely balanced game. Instead they went a whole different direction.

 

[Wiktor]

Although honestly, how much more can they add to the game. It's a complete game as is now.

It still has tons of bugs and inbalance problems. This is what sucks, the game bassicaly needs one big patch and final polish on the new maps that are already done. They should just do that and leave the game done.

 

[Solid Samus]

I think the game is pretty fun. I don't take it seriously as a competitive game but it's still a breath of fresh air compared to half the genre. For free I ain't complaining. 20 or so hours in and I've unlocked enough shit and have gotten comfortable enough with my loadouts that I don't feel outmatched by paying players whatsoever.

I found Tribes: Vengeance at 5 Below something like ten years ago and it was my introduction to the FPS genre. So even a stepchild Tribes is awesome to me

 

[Data West]

hahaha ask how Global Agenda's doing these days.

 

[Coxswain]

It's a reasonable explanation for why they don't intend to continue heavy development on the title; it's pretty feature-complete as it is, and mostly just needs bugfixes and balance patches (which, one would hope, don't count as "major" updates).


It's just a little harder to swallow than it should be, because they moved on from the only halfway decent competitive shooter of the last few years to make a game in the most worthless, craphouse genre this side of the military shooter.

 

[phosphor112]

I think the game is pretty fun. I don't take it seriously as a competitive game but it's still a breath of fresh air compared to half the genre. For free I ain't complaining. 20 or so hours in and I've unlocked enough shit and have gotten comfortable enough with my loadouts that I don't feel outmatched by paying players whatsoever.

I found Tribes: Vengeance at 5 Below something like ten years ago and it was my introduction to the FPS genre. So even a stepchild Tribes is awesome to me

Oh man, your first and only tribes game before Ascend was Vengeance? That's probably why your opinion differs. :lol Vengeance was easily the worst out of the original 3.

 

[Alex Connolly]

It's a reasonable explanation for why they don't intend to continue heavy development on the title; it's pretty feature-complete as it is, and mostly just needs bugfixes and balance patches (which, one would hope, don't count as "major" updates).


It's just a little harder to swallow than it should be, because they moved on from the only halfway decent competitive shooter of the last few years to make a game in the most worthless, craphouse genre this side of the military shooter.

Love your work, Cox! My thoughts exactly.