The game is nowhere near out, but after sharing a video about it (here), I began to wonder some things about the two games' backstories.
-- Firefall --
Both games are set in the distant future with some amazing technology. In Firefall, one such technology they had was arc-folding. Arc-folding is the technique of bending space-time to transport items great distances quickly. They became proficient at short range things like across a country, so they set out to up their game and make a spaceship do it. With their previous technology, they managed to set up a seemingly successful colony on another planet, but it was still 7 years' travel away. With this arc-folding technology, they can get there in no time. A massive ship was built entirely out in space. Once it was ready, they began the countdown for their inaugural "leap".
Well, as luck would have it, something failed. And failed bad. Some sensors and other future-tech got fried, but not before the arc-fold process began. The ship fell out of orbit and crashed to Earth, engulfed in some strange dark cloud of bizarre energy. When the ship's arc reactor exploded after impact, it wreaked havoc on the world. Over 90% of the world was covered in this bizarre cloud that killed everything within it and made all the humans some form of space zombies! The small fragments of humanity that are left have to try to survive and maybe find out how to save the world from destruction.
Your character has a suit of armor called a battleframe. This suit can be traded at any time for a new suit that performs a different role or "class". You run around, gather resources, craft your own gear and new weapons, defend bases, and push back the great wall of space zombie death, aka the Melding. Also, jetpacks!
-- Em8ER--
There isn't much story out yet, but what we know is you are a member of a colony team on another planet. You pilot suits of armor like little mechs, mine resources, craft your gear, and defend bases from some crazy alien race - or I guess native race since you're the alien - that is bent on your destruction. Also, jetpacks!
-- The Fantheory--
With a similar premise from the same team of developers, it's hard not to see some relation between the two (Em8ER is the spiritual successor of Firefall after all). But how close can they be?
Well, what if the arc-fold journey actually happened? Maybe Em8ER is in a parallel universe where the mission succeeded? Or maybe its the story of the colonist already sent out to that planet 7 years of travel away? Seems plausible.
But we're talking crazy technology, so it would be a shame to have something so simple happen. What if instead, the arc-fold journey failed to everyone on Earth, but what no one knew was that the arc-fold successfully transported a copy of the ship to the destination. No one on ship B has any idea they're "parallel" copies of the people from ship A, and vice-versa. Let's call it Schrodinger's Arc-folding Mission.
I don't know how likely any of this is, but it sounds like a fun idea the team might be able to play around with.
If you're interested in learning more about this game, or you would like to support them, check out their site at www.em8er.com
The project is exclusively funded through their crowdfunding campaigns, and they're fully funded for their current milestone. Once they're ready to begin the next milestone, they'll open up a new fundraiser for it.