Epic: No more retail Unreal Tournament releases 'for several years'

by David Hinkle { Jul 24th 2009 at 3:15PM }

Epic Games CEO and founder, Tim Sweeney, recently chatted with G4 about the upcoming Dark Corners content for Gears of War 2. Yeah, been there, done that. Sweeney did, however, mention something interesting regarding the future of our favorite fragfest, Unreal Tournament.

"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. He commented that this move was to aid the company in focusing on "a few other initiatives." We're placing our bets on some kind of downloadable release (a smart move since the interest in downloadable FPS games is certainly there), especially since Sweeney took care to only mention retail.

[Via Big Download]

Tags: epic-games, gears-of-war, gears-of-war-2, unreal-tournament, unreal-tournament-3, unreal-tournament-iii

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shadsy @ Jul 24th 2009 3:18PM

They're just waiting until everything in the world is made out of plastic so they don't have to update the tech.

rowd149 @ Jul 24th 2009 3:19PM

What's with the beards on the dudes and nothing on the gal? Do only guys in the Unreal universe age or something? You coulda at least given her some nice MSPaint wrinkles.

David Hinkle @ Jul 24th 2009 3:29PM

Actually, I was going to put the beard on her, too. But, since she's turned to her side, I just skipped it since it would've been too much of a pain in the ba-dunka-dunk.

Jason B. @ Jul 24th 2009 3:21PM

I would rather have a new ZZT, Tim.

Mikey @ Jul 24th 2009 3:24PM

What he really means to say, is that due to latest unreal game doing so horrible in retail. We are not going to focus on the unreal the game. Rather we will focus on unreal the engine *which well eventually name the gears of war engine* While were on the subject expect gears of war to eventually be oversaturated. Much like everything activison does. But with its own epic flare lol.

Maulok @ Jul 24th 2009 3:31PM

They will probably wait until the next generation arrives and present a new Unreal Tournament game with the next Unreal Engine.

Flankenstein @ Jul 24th 2009 3:32PM

UT was great in it's time, they just didn't update it to compete with modern shooters like COD4 and the Battlefield series. Even having it on Steam for $6 didn't drum up enough interest. I suppose they'll just keep cranking out Gears games until they get stale too.

Comtar @ Jul 24th 2009 3:35PM

This makes me a sad clown, but it's understandable concidering UT3 sales. I liked Unreal Tournament 3, it's a great competitive first person shooter. The problem with UT3, and I'd even say with Halo 3 multiplayer was Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Both Halo 3 and UT3 came out around the same time, and Call of Duty Morden Warfare crushed them both in terms of multiplayer. It's also changed the way multiplayer competitive first person shooters are played and made.

I'd let UT rest till 2012. See where the competitive first person shooter world goes by then and try to be a step ahead. UT was always a step ahead of the curve when it came to how to do multiplayer, the reason UT3 failed was it was simply on par. It was great, on par, just not ahead.

tyetheczar @ Jul 24th 2009 3:59PM

From my experiences of playing UT, I think it's no longer acceptable for games like that to go along without a solid matchmaking system. Quake Live does this in spades! So how come Epic hasn't gotten with the program? And don't get me started on their STILL problematic GUI and Server Browser.

Eh @ Jul 24th 2009 3:36PM

Its a good idea. Nobody is interested in stuff like that anymore, they should focus on things that are more trendy and then several years from now when todays trend gets old and people want an old fashioned deathmatch game they can release a new UT.

Theres no sense in completely changing UT to fit todays style of games, just make a new game.

David @ Jul 24th 2009 3:37PM

Blank-Mage @ Jul 24th 2009 3:46PM

Agreed.

I think.

Otis @ Jul 24th 2009 3:40PM

Basically, they realized console gamers were mentally retarded, Gears of War made loads of money, and then they tried to console-afiy UT3, and it ruined the damned game, it sold poorly, and they're like "Dang! Back to being whores!"

Seriously, I AM a console gamer, but Epic outright pisses me off.

UT2k4 = one of the best multiplayer games ever :x

Vidikron @ Jul 24th 2009 5:10PM

I don't think UT3 did that well on consoles either, so I'm not sure how you can blame it on them. The series started sliding after the first one IMO.

Blank-Mage @ Jul 24th 2009 3:47PM

Ah, the good old innocent days of UT 2004 are long past...

Nerdy Desi @ Jul 24th 2009 3:52PM

UT99 is still the best UT IMO.

Shadowise @ Jul 24th 2009 5:26PM

I'd love to see that hit XBLA. Give it a little bit of a HD maker over, and then back into some Insta-Gib CTF on CTF-Face. Really wouldn't be the same without the mouse and keyboard though, UT99 was all about fast movement and quick reactions.

Mr Khan @ Jul 24th 2009 3:58PM

They understand UT's place in the market, then, which is healthy. It is not going to compete well with the big retail shooters, but it can continue to thrive if they cultivate it as a classic PC shooting experience

CitizenErased @ Jul 24th 2009 3:59PM

They totally lost a lot of faith in PC Gamers after the horror that was UTIII. A friend of mine,a cousin, my brother and I couldn't connect Online to play UT3 at all. To this day I haven't been Online. I decided to check their official forums and noticed people kept posting their online connection problems what did Epic Games do? They considered the issue isolated and closed fixed and started locking all threads that even slightly mentioned that. There's a story for you Joystiq