Unreal Tournament Is Dead Because Epic Games "Doesn’t Know How to Finish It"

Tsing

The FPS Review
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It sounds like the Unreal Tournament franchise is dead and buried. There have been some pretty obvious hints over the years (e.g., what was supposed to be the ninth installment hasn't been updated since 2017), but Tim Sweeney has sealed its fate by calling it a "highly experimental" title that his company doesn't know how to "finish."

Unreal Tournament's developers had originally been ordered to lend their talents to Fortnite, but there was little reason for them to return after the Battle Royale title became the virtual money-printing machine it now is. Fans suspect that Epic Games just never figured out how to best monetize UT.

Epic could have at least imported the new models and weapons that its fans have created over the past few months. I mean, it doesn’t require a lot of manpower. If Epic simply offered that, most of its UT fans would be happy about it. Throw in there some additional modes, improve its visuals and there you have it.
 
I wasn't following the latest Unreal Tournament's development very much, but I thought Epic was going to make it all 'community developed' and didn't realize they were actually developing it on their own.

While it's probably accurate to say Fortnite killed Unreal Tournament, I'd also have to admit the 'tournament-style arena shooter' genre is not nearly as viable as it once was. And I'd rather see UT take a knee than try to become more mainstream like the current crop of 'hero shooters'.
 
Valve drops half life 3 to work on Steam, Epic drops UT do work on epic store and fornite. How the mighty have fallen (into boatloads of cash)
 
Sounds like TIm has his hands full keeping the Epic model afloat and doesn't have the time to put into "the new models and weapons that its fans have created over the past few months ", yet. I wouldn't be surprised, if things get better for them, that it does make a come back in the next year or two. A kind of 'surprise' or anniversary type of announcement, strategically placed of course!
 
Not surprised really. I think there a lot of industry fatigue. How many call of duties, battlefields, etc. Add UT, Doom, Quake, etc. It's not always that the games aren't good, they just aren't that new and different. Fortnite get's a lot of things right. It's fast paced, team and solo, constant updates and new content, free with expensive add-ons and season passes that people want, etc. I think unreal could have had those things, but epic didn't put the effort in.
 
I could see them opening it up completely to the MOD community. I mean look what happened with Half Life (where counterstrike got it's start as a MOD... if you didn't know.)
 
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