Unreal Tournament Shelved For Several Years

[«MechikTaj»]

Frankly, I was hoping another UT wouldn't be released for a while. Imo, UT3 has the best gameplay of all three titles; so a UT4 would be pointless.

My only concern is if they're going to release anymore updates for UT3.

 

[Zeji]

UT definitely needs a break. If Epic ever goes back, hopefully they'll make it more polished than UT3 initially was.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

I'm sure they'll release at least one or two patches before it's all said and done and probably at least one more update, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm kinda glad that they'll wait longer for another UT because that'll give me a chance to catch up and try a bunch of stuff I downloaded and never tried for Unreal, UT, UT2003, UT2004 and UT3.

 

[evilmrfrank]

Worst news Iv'e heard all day Hope that just means its being put off till Unreal Engine 4

 

[ambershee]

I think we all knew that there wouldn't be another UT for a while. There's only so many time you can update an arena game without suffering from drastic franchise fatigue.

Note however, that they specific Unreal Tournament and not Unreal. Either way, I'm not expecting a new moddable title until Unreal Engine 4 comes to the fold.

 

[DorDuke82]

BTW @ Epic : Why not make a Unreal Tournament Online MMOFPS? (yeah yeah i know - throw the stones, i can take it )

I think it would fit UT perfectly:
- you got Factions (Skaarj, Liandri, NEG)
- you could integrate some kind of "Story" around the Tournament idea, Quests could include that you have to win a certain Tournament on some planet (this could be the "singleplayer-campaign") and give the player achievements and rankings
- the "guilds" could play Team-Matches
- there could be Pubs or something where players can make their own Tournaments with leaderboard and everything or that the player has some kind of starting "home" where he could just easily look-up the Server-Browser and compete in normal online-matches or do Bot-Matches in Training Areas
- new planets or systems with new tournaments could be DLC or Addons
- there could be quests as tutorials included that teaches newcomers how to play different Game-Types and what the best Map-Strategies are
- Mods and Maps could be integrated into some kind of special place in the Game-World (maybe some kind of Holodeck you login to and then you get your typical instant action customization) and as such it could be the first MMO with heavy user-modability
- Players like to customize their avatars, maybe you could even sell new armors and accessoiries as a micropayment model
- witch serverchecks cheating would be beaten to a absolut minimum
- it would eliminate the piracy problem nearly entirely

Those are not the most flashed out ideas, i know that, but it could certainly work very well when executed the right way (edit: and Epic now seems to have enough time to experiment with ideas). It would give the whole thing its Tournament Character back, more people could be drawn to play UT online against others and even those who do not want that could just be done with singleplayer-matches in a MMO Space.
It could be like Quake Live only on a much bigger scale, the potential is there and it would be bringing something fresh to UT, MMO-Gaming and FPS in general.

 

[thinsoldier]

The only suprise is that they are afraid of letting the UT-series die a more permanent death. That would have been a real 'bomb' so to speak.

UT3 could have been a hit. If they had evolved the better aspects ut2k4 and UT99 instead of re-hashing concept art that didn't make the cut for GoW and focused on retaining as much nostalgia inducing stuff from previous games instead of needlessly re-inventing/casting aside stuff it would have been great for new and old fans alike.

Really hope they retconn a bunch of stuff if they ever make ut4

 

[nthexwn]

This is really just common sense on EPIC's part. The next Unreal Tournament game would definitely be running on Unreal Engine 4, but they'd also want to release it on consoles in order to make it financially successful. Since Unreal Engine 4 isn't going to be able to run on the XB360 that means they'll be waiting for the next generation of consoles before we see a new Unreal Tournament game. That could mean another 6 or 7 years of waiting and it's hard to say with any certainty what's going to happen by then.

 

[Kantham]

I'm not shocked. I mean sure we've seen the colors of UT and area shooters in general and it's pretty damn much done for now on. Things are on the road ahead with RPS and on the likes.

But please, for **** sake, release your ****ing games on the PC.

 

[N1ghtmare]

But please, for **** sake, release your ****ing games on the PC.

This.

I don't mind if Epic holds out on UT for a while, just as long as I get to play some of their goodies on my PC.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

This is not surprising, I've been saying UT is done for several years for at least a year now.

We're really missing the biggest picture, though. Did anyone watch the interview with Tim all the way through? Shacknews caught what I caught so I'll let them explain.

Sweeney did add that Epic will continue to support Unreal Tournament 3 modding efforts, and is planning to "open up the engine to more people to use freely" sometime in the future.

Continuing to support modding efforts? Sounds like a patch! Opening up the engine to more people to use freely? Sounds like a free version of UT3 or maybe UE3 Runtime!

Also, it's important to note that he specifically said retail UT. That could possibly mean they have further UT releases with something like tight Steam integration in the works.

 

[Kyllian]

It would seem that, instead, there are currently several unannounced games underway at the studio.

They're called Gears of War 3, 4 and 5 along with Gears of Warcraft, Gears Wars and Gears of Duty 1 and 2

Personally, I don't even care what Epic puts out anymore, as long as they keep the UT2k4 master server running

No Unreal 3 in the near future...

Well, they stated Unreal Tournament, not Unreal
So you never know...

Go Team Rachel!

Fixed

 

[intentsly]

Again not really surprised

If anyone couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel being a freight train coming their way, well consider how UT2kx and UT3 were handled.
They didn't listen to any fans when they made 2kx and were hassled and beleaguered into making changes into UT3 that made it to a now playable state.
The writing was on the wall and the lipservice was more than any fan could bear to see through.
But we still do, in hopes that we'll continue to see updates to our beloved games Unreal and UT.
I will be patiently waiting for the next PC release of either Unreal or UT, whenever that may be.
COD, TF, KF and the likes have no place on my machine.
I want my games to be (yea i know) unreal and be so because it is a freaking game!
Reality sucks as does money, so why pay for something that sucks!
That's what rocketlaunchers, flak cannons, enforcers, shock rifles, sniper rifles, biorifles, stingers, pulse guns, impact hammers, rippers, miniguns, chainsaws, translocators and the mighty redeemer (any new ones I missed) are for. Escape from reality.
MMO's don't inspire me either.
I do look forward to Diablo 3 though
Anyway, its better they've said it than to string hopes along.
I still play UT1 and UT3 regularly, lets hope people don't stop playing altogether after hearing this news!
Unreal Forever!

 

[Sir_Brizz]

UT3 gameplay is fine. Much better than 2k4. And for those saying it was a sales failure, consider that they sold over 1.2 million copies across all platforms by early 2008. Averaging $50 a pop that is over $50 million, so I think calling it a sales failure is missing the mark completely.

 

[SmokeRingHalo]

Doesn't take a genius to know why UT3 didn't do so well.
Crappy story/plot (War instead of Tournament)
Not enough content (at launch) especially classic maps.
No Malcolm. Nuff said.

 

[LivingPuppet]

UT3 gameplay is fine. Much better than 2k4. And for those saying it was a sales failure, consider that they sold over 1.2 million copies across all platforms by early 2008. Averaging $50 a pop that is over $50 million, so I think calling it a sales failure is missing the mark completely.

Isn't that shipped? I know for sure about half a million or more were sold to customers. I read on gamespot several months ago that they sold close to 500,000. Either way Unreal games released after ut2k4 didn't sell as well as previous games and that could be a reason for this decision.

 

[StalwartUK]

Face it, the franchise is over with. This is simply Epic washing their hands of any obligations they believe they have left for the PC platform.

While UT3 might've been able to sell a little over a million copies on multiple platforms (bearing in mind that only something like 1/10 of those are PC sales) both of the GoW games have managed to net in around 5 million sales each, and on a single platform (X360). In fact I would probably say that they probably got more sales from Gears of War in a year that they did with a decade of various Unreal series titles.

It was obvious that this was the direction that they were heading. Gears of War was a far more profitable venture and has made them a well known and respected developer in the gaming world. The UT games will be best remembered for being glorified and bloated tech demos of the Unreal engine.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Isn't that shipped? I know for sure about half a million or more were sold to customers. I read on gamespot several months ago that they sold close to 500,000. Either way Unreal games released after ut2k4 didn't sell as well as previous games and that could be a reason for this decision.

It was sold. 500,000 might be the number on PC or something, although there is no good indicator what their sales on PC have been like since the 2.0/Titan/Black stuff came out.

We all know that Gears made them popular, made them rich, etc. but that doesn't mean they will abandon Unreal or the PC.

 

[Severin]

UT3 gameplay is fine. Much better than 2k4. And for those saying it was a sales failure, consider that they sold over 1.2 million copies across all platforms by early 2008. Averaging $50 a pop that is over $50 million, so I think calling it a sales failure is missing the mark completely.

Unless there are new figures shouldnt that read Shipped not sold and if you think that Epic was seeing $50 per unit your seriously mistaken.

Ut3 was a failure because no one wanted to play the game not because it did not sell. Had it been any good word would have spread and people would have played. It was'nt and they did'nt.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

If you think Epic really spent $50 million producing UT3, I'd like some of what you're smoking please Also, I'm pretty sure that they didn't fully fund development. They had a publisher, you know