Firefall, the free-to-play open world FPS RPG with strong vibes of Tribes and some other titles I can't really remember the name of at the moment will have an beta program starting later this month, after PAX Prime. While the game is current in a friends and family beta period, it will expand into a larger, general beta program towards the end of August. There's no indication of how widespread it will be, but budging from the worlds of Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios, the beta program will be modeled on a system similar to the Gmail invite methodology, where people with beta access can invite others who then invite others, in a slowly propagating wave of exponential growth. I for one, find this to be an absolutely brilliant idea.
Firefall is being developed by Red 5 Studios, and the team lead is Scott Youngblood, Dynamix veteran and also lead designer of the original Tribes. I am justifiably excited about this news.
Thanks, Massively!