The new game, titled Tribes Universe, is set to boast a persistent world with territory control and battles featuring over one hundred players, according to a feature rundown in the announcement post written by HiRez co-founder Erez Goren.

• Three Tribes (factions)
• Full clan (agency) support
• First person view (third person for some vehicles)
• Full vehicle support (ground and air)
• Full persistent world with territory control (no instances)
• PvP focused
• Huge outdoor maps (about 10x the area of sonoran desert)
• Large scale fights (100+ players)
• Jetpacks, skiing, lots of weapons, etc

The rights were previously owned by GarageGames, the tech company and developed founder by veterans of the Tribes series' creator Dynamix, who kicked it all off in 1999 with Starsiege: Tribes. The series' hallmarks were large, team-based battles on huge maps, deployable structures, jetpacks and super-fast movement known as "skiing," original born of a physics bug.

Another four Tribes games followed, the last of which was Irrational Games' Tribes: Vengeance in 2004. However, the series did receive a spiritual sequel of sorts in GarageGames' Fallen Empire: Legions for its browser-based browser-based games portal InstantAction, though the service is currently offline. GarageGames announced back in 2009 that the original Tribes would also hit InstantAction though it has yet to materialise and with the rights passed to HiRez, it's not clear whether it ever will.

There's no word yet on Tribes Universe's platforms or release date, though it's due to enter alpha testing in around three months. The pricing model hasn't been revealed either but as persistent worlds aren't free, it wouldn't be surprising if Tribes Universe followed Global Agenda's example and charges for the game and content updates but has no subscription fees.