Epic: No New Unreal Tournament Games For Several Years

[Keane Ng]

Epic: No New Unreal Tournament Games For Several Years

Epic is putting the Unreal Tournament on hold while it works on other things, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney said, adding that there aren't plans for a new game for several years.

With Epic Games currently thriving thanks to the success of the Gears of War franchise, it seems the studio has shifted its priorities away from one of the series that helped get it as far as it has come: Unreal Tournament. While the franchise has a "long-term" future at Epic, studio founder Tim Sweeney told G4 that fans shouldn't be expecting anything in the near future.

"Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority, but we're planning not to release a major retail game in the series for several years," Sweeney said. "So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives."

A few other initiatives could mean a lot of things, but it surely includes Gears of War. The last Unreal Tournament to come out post-Gears was Unreal Tournament III in 2007, which didn't really catch on nearly as much as Gears, though I don't think anybody expected it to. Nevertheless, perhaps Epic has accepted that Unreal Tournament doesn't have the same kind of appeal it once carried, and has moved on for the time being.

[Via BigDownload [http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/07/23/tim-sweeney-no-new-unreal-tournament-game-for-several-years/]]

Permalink

 

[Woem]

I think this is a good thing. There's no reason to release a new version almost every year. Let the game ripe so it can be reborn as the amazing ground-breaker it originally was.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Yea, mostly because UT3 sucked. UT was good when it was original, not now that there are 30 identical shooters next to it.

UT is dead. I just hope Epic can come up with something to revive it into a new game that is actually you know worth buying

 

[findler]

Focusing their attention primarily on Gears is exactly what Epic needs to do. I liked the first, but I ground my teeth at times playing Gears 2.

 

[Swaki]

i just found a 2 years old cup of yogurt in my fridge, but i think its a good thing they put it on hold, nice to see theres videogame companies out there not milking their success.

 

[obisean]

UT is failing because they can't decide if they want to keep or remove assault mode. It is one of the most popular modes and wasn't in UT3. I know people who own UT3 but prefer to play UT2004 because of assault mode. They seem to remove this mode every other game and have yet to attribute that to the lack of popularity every other game.

 

[Grayl]

UT2004 was possibly the best multiplayer game ever. The problem with UT3 was that all they did was improve the graphics and then actually REMOVE things from the previous games. Assualt mode? Gone. Bombing run? Gone. Invasion, my favourite game-mode? Also gone.

I've lost respect for Epic after one of the people there (it might actually be Tim Sweeney) said that he'd rather make a game that's not brilliant that everyone loves rather than make a game that is brilliant that not many people play.

I reckon they should leave UT for a while and come-back after they've found out that good graphics don't make shooters. Heck, even Gears didn't have that good graphics, but that still managed to have a good campaign. Why couldn't they have ever done that with UT?

Bleh.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

I actually bought UT3, and the thing that turned me off was that it wasn't friendly to newcomers. Almost every player I encountered was a pro who could headshot with a blindfold on. Also, t wasn't friendly to my computer, as it lagged all the time, so sometimes the first frame was me alone, and the second one was me drowning in my own blood.

 

[AutumnGold]

Fuck gears ill take UT over GoW anyday

 

[rated pg]

Very sad, since Unreal Tournament is the best name in shooters, bar none. And it's one of the few still with a health bar and the ability to carry all the game's weapons (subject to map availability). And I don't care what anyone says: 3 wasn't that bad. The vehicles were a little unbalanced and the Redeemer was kinda underpowered but it still had that classic feel and was as brutal and gory as ever.

 

[Scrythe]

Yea, mostly because UT3 sucked. UT was good when it was original, not now that there are 30 identical shooters next to it.

UT is dead. I just hope Epic can come up with something to revive it into a new game that is actually you know worth buying

Only becuse they found their niche market with Gears and decided to piss all over UT3. If Gears of War never happened, UT3 would have been much more amazing.

R.I.P. Unreal Tournament. There will always be a special place in my heart (and index finger) for you. I'll enjoy UT until I die.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

This better mean Gears of War 3 by 2011 or I call lazy bullshit. If they're not working on Unreal Tournament, they better be working hard on something better. I'm trying to think positive on this one, though.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

I bet UT will be a smash when it comes back, unless someone decides to make a Quake III Arena revival before then. Fast-paced deathmatch shooters just aren't that hot right now, they were mostly updating UT as a competitive standard (as intellectual property, Unreal was never really a smash - just good games on a great engine.) I agree with the first response, let it sit and ripen, then let loose with UT4/UT2012 when there's a new generation of gear and a lack of fast-action shooters.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Good news. UT3 was terrible.

 

[shial]

The economy is in the dumps so Epic is focusing on what they can make the best profit on to survive. Gears uses the UT3 engine so the development costs are a LOT lower for them. Once the engine shows its age and/or things pick up they will rework the engine and do an UT4

 

[samsonguy920]

This can be a good thing, but maybe after a year they might thinking of doing a game set in the UT universe that isn't Tournament style. True Unreal 2 sucked (mostly cuz it felt like a whoopee cushion at the end and the long reloads allowed for doing laundry, making a sandwich, watching MacGyver...)
But deep in the world of Unreal is a deep storyline, something that can be milked for besides another Tournament game. Maybe they ought to license it out to a company or two, like Valve did with Gearbox that gave us Opposing Force and Blue Shift? I doubt those egos at Epic will, but never can tell in today's rocky world.

 

[hebdomad]

Well lets just hope Epic keep modders in the loop with their next engine.

 

[sniperworm]

Maybe when they bring UT back it won't feel exactly like Gears, I couldn't stand that at all. The reason I never got Gears was because I didn't want to play it and they managed to sneak it into my home anyway in UT3 clothing.

 

[Kiutu]

UT is better than Gears though...why? No chainsaw bayonets.