'No plans' for Tribes: Ascend on consoles

Popular free-to-play shooter looks set to remain PC-only

Hi-Rez Studio currently has "no plans" to bring its free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend to consoles.

COO Todd Harris told Gamasutra that the game was originally planned for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC, but the team reconfigured the title to play best on the open PC platform after it opted to adopt a free-to-play model.

"We do not have any plans for Tribes on console at this time," he said. "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 [gameplay] around speed, a quick turn radius, and things that are optimized for PC game controls," Harris added.

"We're still interested in free-to-play on consoles, but at this point, we have nothing specific to Tribes on console. I do expect the consoles will see more and more free-to-play, certainly the new generation, and possibly the existing generation as well."

If you're not in on the action yet - and you have a decent PC - you should give it a go. It's a sweet-looking, online multiplayer shooter and you can have it for free. Our friends at Edge gave it a 9/10, calling it "one of the most fluid, elegant, and strategically rich online shooters available."

Late last month Hi-Rez said Tribes: Ascend had topped 800,000 registered players.