According to this .IGN Article Tribes 3 is in the works.
December 12, 2002 - We got an early Christmas present this morning from a reader frequenting the TribalWar.com forums. It seems that a little hinkfo has finally slipped out of Sierra's clammy hands by way of a post from Tribes 2 Brand Manager Alex Rodberg. See if you can't see what the important part of this post is...
When we make another Tribes game
(I'm still thinking of a good name)
Skiing will require skill -
No speed cap, and skiing uphill.
The graphics rock - worlds come alive -
But won't require a GeForce 5.
Lance, bomber, tank, I doubt they'll go
But they'll be better this time though.
We learned our lesson about forums -
They're the domain of those who whore 'em.
An open beta early on
Will help make sure the bugs are gone
So it's a given that we'll have one
And only launch when it is done.
Can't trust a weasel not to lie
But cross my fingers, hope to die
No more a question - may or might
The next Tribes game got a green light.
Oh yeah kiddies, the next Tribes is on the way! Of course, just to make sure, we dialed up Sierra for direct confirmation and a happy quote, which was given to us by PR Manager Adam Kahn, "I can confirm that we are working on another Tribes game." Gee thanks Adam, have anything more to tell us? "I can confirm that we've been greenlighted for full production." No, no, I mean about the actual game... "We'll have an official announcement next year." Right... so we don't get the details at this point, but we can certainly hope that we'll be seeing something about the game soon.
Thankfully for us, Alex has a bit of a runny mouth and had some more to say on the TribalWar.com forums such as...
I don't think any game can ever be T1 again. Even if we were to recreate T1 in painstaking detail, it wouldn't be as popular as before. Most of you are already past the learning curve, and what made it addictive was moving up that curve.
Looking forward, we must rely on our (and your) ability to discern what was fun and what wasn't about all the Tribes games (and even other games) and end up with a finished product that is both new and familiar at the same time.
I'm confident in the team we have assembled for this daunting task. I can't wait to introduce you to them so we can get fans involved in the process as early as possible. When? When we make the official announcement, sometime next year.
Our intent is to capture that spirit and feeling, but we're not out to recreate it. Whatever comes next it will be new and different, but respectful to its heritage.
...and this little bitty responding to another post that hints at the possibility of a high end development team...
This team is from the highest bracket.
If there's a problem they will track it.
If its not good
It's understood
You'll punch their face and steal their jacket.
Granted, that doesn't really solve the problem of Tal excitedly gibbering in the corner right now, but at least it's something. We know it's on the way and we can just hope that whatever developer is handling the product is up to the task of satisfying the Tribes community.
We are, of course, in the middle of selling Fran for more info on the game. You can hope to hear more next year
Doesn't Sierra need money now?
Didn't they release the Tribes II unfinished? And fire the development team? And let the patch go until users screamed?
Sierra has a history of PR to prop up the bottom line and a history of leaving users holding the bag.
They probably made a lot of money on something and the fans are screaming for a new game. Not to mention I think Tribes 2 will sell well on xbox.