Tribes: Ascend has 800K users, no console plans

Free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend is generating serious buzz, as an impressive early player base shows.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Hi-Rez chief operating officer Todd Harris said launch had gone "well" despite the lingering stigma of free-to-play.

"At this point we have over 800,000 registered accounts. Servers are very, very active. Reviews have been good," he said.

"It's really our belief that for an online multiplayer game, particularly, free-to-play is the best model for gamers and for studios."

Hi-Rex expects to localise Tribes: Ascend for other languages, but there's one market it won't be visiting.

"We do not have any plans for Tribes on console at this time," Harris confirmed, explaining that the team's gamble on free-to-play ruled out a multiplatform release.

"The way it went is that we wanted to do the free-to-play model, and there wasn't a clear path to that on consoles early on. Based on that, we optimized the game around the strengths of the PC, and specifically a keyboard and mouse control.

"Once we decided it'd only be on the PC, we optimized around speed, a quick turn radius, and PC game controls. We're still interested in free-to-play on consoles, but at this point, we have nothing specific to Tribes on console."

Well, that's a shame, but nobody likes a dodgy port, do they?

Thanks, FahedJ!