Unreal Tournament is getting a break

PC News | Epic's Sweeney says no new UT for a few more years.

Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has revealed the surprising news that his company will not release a full retail version of Unreal Tournament in the next "several years," a move which will break from the studio's tend of steadily releasing Unreal Tournament titles between 1999 and 2007.

In an interview with G4, (which has been transcribed by BigDownload Sweeney noted, "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. So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives."

While there is no new UT on the horizon for the moment, Sweeney did add that Epic Games will continue to support the modding efforts of the Unreal Tournament 3 community, stating that the company is planning to "open up the engine to more people to use freely" sometime in the future.

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20 Comments

Frozencry

2 years ago

........

brb, drinking my sorrows away.

MOTHERF***** *A*F****F*A*DFGHA***A*DS*A*SFGHB(ADSGHT

ZNMS

2 years ago

It's okay Denny. Epic Games are probably hard at work on Gears of War 3. You just have to think positive.

Kimberley Ellis

2 years ago

Do you really want another sucky UT to come out so fast Denny?

I'm still in denial that UT3 even exists. It pales in comparison to the awesomeness of UT2004.

Frozencry

2 years ago

Well that's the thing, I'm bitter because they're just ditching the failure that was UT3.

They've just changed as a company. It's evident because UT2k3 was somewhat weak, but then rectified a year onwards with UT2k4, which is indeed fantastic and one I stuck to competitively for years.

I was just hoping for some kind of reinvigoration of the series. UT3 does have its merits, but they're just not polished enough now.

benspyda

2 years ago

I think UT has become outdated. Just a game dedicated to deathmatch doesn't cut it any more. COD4 and gears have epic single player games and multiplayer modes and unfortunately UT is just a thing of the past. I hope in "several years" it is reinvented somehow.

Like a UT MMO which plays just like the other UT's but you have an MMO size world and leveling. Or UT go cart racing. or UT party games. maybe not.

DUC5

2 years ago

trend*

ZNMS

2 years ago

benspyda wrote

I think UT has become outdated. Just a game dedicated to deathmatch doesn't cut it any more.

Quake LIVE and Battlefield 1943 seem to be doing fine.

Jaws

2 years ago

Kimberley Ellis wrote

Do you really want another sucky UT to come out so fast Denny?

I'm still in denial that UT3 even exists. It pales in comparison to the awesomeness of UT2004.

Werd. I cant remember being more disappointed in a game than I was when I brought UT III home. It's like owning a great car, then next year upgrading it to a model that is all show and lacks most of the features of the one that you had just traded in..

To Epic: Keep the series dead if you can't eclipse the awesomeness that was UT2k4.

Puddingfork

2 years ago

ZNMS wrote

benspyda wrote

I think UT has become outdated. Just a game dedicated to deathmatch doesn't cut it any more.

Quake LIVE and Battlefield 1943 seem to be doing fine.

Yes but quake live is free and BF1943 is not a full retail game and thus reasonably cheap compared to UT3 (or atleast how much it cost on launch)

What epic need to do is release a UT without any sad attempts at a SP Story mode and just focus on multi-player to try and deliver cheap small but polished package that is affordable and enjoyable without watering it down for 'casual' players (like how they removed the dodge jump from UT3)

That said I'm still happy to continue to play UT2k4, the only problem is that it's so dead these days which is a real shame.

Jarrod

2 years ago

I think this is a good thing, really.

UT3 and UT2003 were both quite weak. UT and UT2004 were the best, and you cant help but get the feeling Epic struggle a bit with their own franchise.

I think giving it a rest for a few years will hopefully allow them to conceptualise over that time and come up with something new. Allow them to reinvigorate the franchise so it feels both familiar and true, but also fresh and a step forward, much like the differences between UT and UT2004.

UT3, for me, felt too rushed, almost like a tech demo. It was one of the games they used to market UE3, and rightly so since its so pretty, but I think a longer focus on the gameplay side of things will do it wonders.

benspyda

2 years ago

ZNMS wrote

Quake LIVE and Battlefield 1943 seem to be doing fine.

Exactly, so why would you need to buy a UT game full price. They either need to reinvent UT or like puddingfork said just focus on mp and make it cheaper.

EDIT: I still love ut2004, I'm not trying to sound like a hater of UT, I just wish they'd freshin it up a bit.

Frozencry

2 years ago

Purity of deathmatch will never get old, Quake 3 very easily proves that. The problem is that they're trying too many stupid things which is taking away from the quality that UT2k4 and UT99 had.

Ut2k4 is arguably a much more difficult game to master than UT99 was, but it's also what made its DM so bloody good. It was challenging, had a unique movement system and felt very smooth, and it worked. It was purely Deathmatch and duel based too, and that's why it had such a strong following and competitive scene, because it's what UT players wanted.

They just dumbed UT3 down entirely after 2k4, as if to cater to a more mainstream audience, which is exactly what UT has never really sold to, but more the hardcore UT community that's always around.

Perhaps they do need a break, but I feel that after so many years, Cliffy has first off lost his touch when it comes to UT (considering the map designs are quite awful in UT3 bar a few, and the weapon balance is laughable), and Mark Rein has cheated the community as a whole by turning UT into some silly, watered down wannabe of a competitive deathmatch title that more or less has focused itself entirely on some crappy conquest-like mode that is exactly what UT players do NOT want.

Yes, I am bitter about this, because I grew up on UT and seeing it getting screwed over and turned into something it just isn't is wrong.

daishogun

2 years ago

UT is looking more and more like Sonic these days, and we ALL know what happened there... In my opinion, UT3 shouldn't exist, it was a step backwards, and completely against Epic Games normal way of doing things. I can't remember any recent games which were made to suit the casual gamer, yes easier difficulties, but not getting rid of hard to pull of manoeuvres or getting rid of half of the weapons (I want my shield gun NOW). I don't know but the next UT better be something good, because if it goes worse after UT3... well we don't want to go there now do we...

Jarrod

2 years ago

Denny wrote

Purity of deathmatch will never get old, Quake 3 very easily proves that. The problem is that they're trying too many stupid things which is taking away from the quality that UT2k4 and UT99 had.

It's unfair to compare to Quake 3 though, considering it's pretty much the definitive deathmatch game of all time.

Frozencry

2 years ago

They were both released alongside each other and both defined many things in the Deathmatch scene. I don't put one over the other solely because as much as they were both a purely Deathmatch based title, they were very different too. Quake 3 however has proved the test of time, partly due to Quake 4 never really living up either,hence continuing Quake 3's reign.

Azza

2 years ago

Now all we need is other studios to follow suit. If Bungie rested Halo for a couple of years, instead of announcing Halo: Reach, (when ODST is almost out) then they could come up with something truly memorable, instead of the average Halo 3. Guitar Hero could use a break as well. Hell, as awesome as Red Alert 3 is, I can't help but think that they could have improved the balance a bit.

[/rant]

benspyda

2 years ago

Denny wrote

Purity of deathmatch will never get old, Quake 3 very easily proves that. The problem is that they're trying too many stupid things which is taking away from the quality that UT2k4 and UT99 had.

I really think UT3 was trying to compete with halo and other console shooters rather than trying to improve on UT2k4 which essentially was the best UT to date.

If they actually just remade everything that was in ut2k4 with better graphics it may have been worthwhile. But sadly UT is fading away.

Baad Woolf

2 years ago

Azza wrote

I think bungie could do that because they didn't port halo 3 to pc, so the people who would normally have been doing halo 2 vista would've been doing ODST, and the people who did halo 3 are doing reach.

But yeah imo if they devoted all of their manpower to either reach or ODST, either game could have been much better

Cyph

2 years ago

I think it's because UT has started to lose its appeal and sense of individuality amongst the plethora of other multiplayer FPSers. Well, that's how I feel about it anyway; everything is so same same.

emech

2 years ago

To take another point of view: I always saw UT as a fun game, but served a greater purpose of tech demoing the engine, which was then (heavily) licenced to other devevelopers bring in much more income (proberbly) to Epic then the actual sales of UT. Does this announcment meant that Epic has hit a wall with current tech that stops them from producing the next big engine, or is it that the competition (crysis etc) stolen the percived future market share of engine licence?

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