Unreal Tournament 4 is dead. Why hasn't Epic made it official?

Sinder · Oct 19, 2018

The last update to UT4 (also just known as "Unreal Tournament") was in July 2017. Development has ceased completely since then with the team tasked with that game sent to Fortnite.

What exactly is stopping Epic from just announcing that its done and de-listing it from the launcher? Even when it was actually under development, it was progressing so slowly that you could tell Epic didn't have any faith in it. But now, with Fortnite being as huge as it is, I don't see why they'd ever have the motivation to go back to it. Someone convince me otherwise.

Anyway, here's the last trailer they ever put out for it.

donhonk · Oct 19, 2018

I find it very odd too

TheMan · Oct 19, 2018

I'm not sure I realized this game existed

Reckheim · Oct 19, 2018

surprised it didn't go the way of paragon, paragon was such a good game :(

JustAnotherOne · Oct 19, 2018

I was wondering as well..such a shame.

ILikeFeet · Oct 19, 2018

probably because sweeping it under the rug cost them nothing in time

Robin · Oct 19, 2018

It's too bad as I truly believe there's still room in the market for a GaaS Unreal Tournament.

Buttonbasher · Oct 19, 2018

Remember when Fortnite was a joke for years, and everyone believed it wasn't a real game or even in development anymore? I figure the same can be said for this.

Dphex · Oct 19, 2018

well, after how awful Unreal Tournament 3 was, i am not sure if it so bad that UT4 is dead.

tbh, UT2K4 was peak Unreal Tournament, these times will never come back

Raide · Oct 19, 2018

Too busy making that Fortnite dollar. Who cares about anything else.

Eolz · Oct 19, 2018

Isn't that a game that was pushed as being developed by the community? I'm not sure if pulling out a MML3 and saying it's the community's fault would be any better.

Also, Fortnite happened since.

ILikeFeet · Oct 19, 2018

Buttonbasher said:
Remember when Fortnite was a joke for years, and everyone believed it wasn't a real game or even in development anymore? I figure the same can be said for this.

unlike fortnite, UT had almost all its devs pulled

and put on fortnite

Mupod · Oct 19, 2018

Last time I played it was in the gap between the Overwatch beta and release and it seemed pretty great even then. Damn shame, but I'd hope they go back to it one day and put some of that infinite Fortnite money into it.

J75 · Oct 19, 2018

Fortnite popularity killing UT4 makes me really sad and angry and is why i probably dislike the game. Hopefully another developer makes a UT like game to cater to that audience.

Zapperino · Oct 19, 2018

It's dead and it's a crying shame.

TheRaidenPT · Oct 19, 2018

J75 said:
Fortnite popularity killing UT4 makes me really sad and angry and is why i probably dislike the game. Hopefully another developer makes a UT like game to cater to that audience.

Well thing is, the amount of people who want these type of games.. is small. Look at Quake for example

sibarraz · Oct 19, 2018

Sometimes I forgot that Unreal Tournament 3 existed

capitalCORN · Oct 19, 2018

Eolz said:
Isn't that a game that was pushed as being developed by the community? I'm not sure if pulling out a MML3 and saying it's the community's fault would be any better.

Also, Fortnite happened since.

It was supposed to an entirely community driven development. These things either take place or they don't. The fact that Epic started on this foot was already confirmation that they didn't give a fuck about UT anymore.

Sinder · Oct 19, 2018

Buttonbasher said:
Remember when Fortnite was a joke for years, and everyone believed it wasn't a real game or even in development anymore? I figure the same can be said for this.

This was my thought too, but Fortnite basically just grew in popularity as soon as the closed alpha began and then obviously really blew up with the BR mode.

Unreal Tournament was available for anyone to play, was advertised to a decent degree during 2015, and no one gave a shit.

J75 · Oct 19, 2018

TheRaidenPT said:
Well thing is, the amount of people who want these type of games.. is small. Look at Quake for example

Yeah, it's super niche. I guess i'm hoping that since the game industry is so big with so many type of players, there has to be a big enough audience for a new UT type game to be made and be profitable, right? I hope so.

CountAntonio · Oct 19, 2018

They don't really need to.

EvilChameleon · Oct 19, 2018

I would buy a gaming PC if they announced a remaster of Unreal Tournament 2004.

Vanta Aurelius · Oct 19, 2018

I would love just a straight up remake of UT'99. That would be a cool community driven effort.

Anyway, it is annoying that all development stopped on UT4. I played it fairly regularly, but stopped when the devs announced that they were completely stopping contributions in lieu of Fortnite's success.

mlappy · Oct 19, 2018

ILikeFeet said:
unlike fortnite, UT had almost all its devs pulled

and put on fortnite

Ok fortnite is popular, we get it. But how many people does a dev actually need working on that one game? And this mostly for skins and cosmetic shit. Honestly... This is why ive lost complete interest in Epic lately.

Pargon · Oct 19, 2018

DudleyBoi said:
I would love just a straight up remake of UT'99.

I was going to say something similar, but remakes of games generally don't turn out that well, and aside from some minor input and sound related issues, the original still plays great today.

Deleted member 22585 · Oct 19, 2018

It's a damn shame because I love what I've played so far. But I doubt it would find a big audience, unfortunately .

Butch · Oct 19, 2018

Dphex said:
well, after how awful Unreal Tournament 3 was, i am not sure if it so bad that UT4 is dead.

tbh, UT2K4 was peak Unreal Tournament, these times will never come back

Have you even played it? It's nothing like the third one.

space_nut · Oct 19, 2018

Just release Unreal Championship 2 remake. That was the shit with all the melee and shooting

Sinder · Oct 19, 2018

CountAntonius said:
They don't really need to.

Kind of awkward having it just sit there in the launcher.

Zomba13 · Oct 19, 2018

I mean, didn't they not even actually release it. Isn't (wasn't?) it just still alpha, or pre-beta or whatever? Where they were still building and testing out things and it was a whole "you, the community, will help build this!" with people being able to make/sell skins and stuff?

I didn't play it because I was waiting for it to be "done". And if it did get "done" then I didn't know about it and maybe that is partly why they dropped it (I mean, obviously Fortnight, but it's easy to pull people off a project no one is playing because you're not been very vocal about said project).

ShinUltramanJ · Oct 19, 2018

Buttonbasher said:
Remember when Fortnite was a joke for years, and everyone believed it wasn't a real game or even in development anymore? I figure the same can be said for this.

Did Epic even bother to finish Fortnite? The "main game" that's around $60?

CountAntonio · Oct 19, 2018

Sinder said:
Kind of awkward having it just sit there in the launcher.

Yeah but there is probably still is some community on there playing it. Killing it off will only serve as bad press when the upkeep is probably not hurting them. Would be nice if they just made it easier for the community to add maps and models and have it be a completely community driven game cause it's actually kind of fun.

ShinUltramanJ said:
Did Epic even bother to finish Fortnite? The "main game" that's around $60?

It get's updates alongside with BR and has improved a lot. It will just never be that big of a draw cause it's just a big pve grindfest.

LightKiosk · Oct 19, 2018

They couldn't figure out a way to add BR to save it like they did with Fortnite.

Risk Breaker · Oct 19, 2018

I'd play the shit out of a proper UT4. Even if it was 100 player Last Man Standing UT4.

Sinder · Oct 19, 2018

CountAntonius said:
Yeah but there is probably still is some community on there playing it. Killing it off will only serve as bad press when the upkeep is probably not hurting them. Would be nice if they just made it easier for the community to add maps and models and have it be a completely community driven game cause it's actually kind of fun.

Exactly. You have to track down the custom maps on random fan sites and install them yourself, Epic can't even be bothered to integrate that stuff into the launcher lol.

mlappy · Oct 19, 2018

ShinUltramanJ said:
Did Epic even bother to finish Fortnite? The "main game" that's around $60?

You mean that shit nobody bought?

Rizific · Oct 19, 2018

wait, i thought the development for this game was being done in large part by the community? was/is that not the case?

WieDerrickWie · Oct 19, 2018

They should put in a last minute battle royale mode to save it

(No joke, I would actually love a battle royale that plays like UT)

I really enjoyed following the creation of this game. You don't get insight into AAA game development very often, so it was cool seeing one get made from the very beginning, even if it ended up getting abandoned (though to be fair thats appropriate for game development)

GameZone · Oct 19, 2018

Epic should have made a final attempt by releasing it on Steam. Too pride?

Deleted member 13645 · Oct 19, 2018

I bet they moved both the Paragon and UT teams over to Fortnite, but Paragon had just enough players and promises of constant updates that they had to officially kill it, where UT they could just ignore it and go silent. Killing off 2 games close to each other and announcing that both teams are moving to Fortnite probably would have brought too much PR backlash.

Lackless · Oct 19, 2018

GameZone said:
Why hasn't Epic made a final attempt on Steam

Epic is gone from Steam forever as much as Blizzard is.

collige · Oct 19, 2018

The game is still free to play and playable right? Why would they have any reason to delist it?

Sinder · Oct 19, 2018

Rizific said:
wait, i thought the development for this game was being done in large part by the community? was/is that not the case?

That never really got off the ground, they never even built a platform for that to be a viable way of making the game. Even when it was under "active development", it was a skeleton crew that just put out engine upgrades every other month that would break custom maps. Nothing was done to make it easy for the community to be involved.

Heisenburger · Oct 19, 2018

I really want a fully functioning ut. Assault and onslaught were just too fun in 2004. 3s mode was trash and the game was clearly held back by consoles.

Potterson · Oct 19, 2018

Playing with friends is still fun. Hope they won't just delete it.

Nirolak · Oct 19, 2018

Raide said:
Too busy making that Fortnite dollar. Who cares about anything else.

They are actively making other games: https://www.resetera.com/threads/epics-next-game-battle-breakers-now-co-developed-by-chair-switches-design-to-battle-passes.75849/

ShinUltramanJ said:
Did Epic even bother to finish Fortnite? The "main game" that's around $60?

It gets updates constantly, sometimes more than the Battle Royale mode does.

Rizific · Oct 19, 2018

Sinder said:
That never really got off the ground, they never even built a platform for that to be a viable way of making the game. Even when it was under "active development", it was a skeleton crew that just put out engine upgrades every other month that would break custom maps. Nothing was done to make it easy for the community to be involved.

ahh i see. i was under the impression that all those things would have been put in place before even mentioning the community involvement. shame, i played it for a bit and it was classic UT.

kubev · Oct 19, 2018

Yeah, it's a bummer that Epic is ignoring UT. I was really impressed with what I played of it, but it's hard to really put much of a focus on something that's unfinished and shows no signs of ever being finished.

CountAntonio · Oct 19, 2018

Sinder said:
Exactly. You have to track down the custom maps on random fan sites and install them yourself, Epic can't even be bothered to integrate that stuff into the launcher lol.

At the very least that would be great. The game was free on the launcher in very playable state for months and nobody ever cared. Obviously they didn't market it like crazy but it's pretty obvious arena shooter just aren't a big draw anymore. If the unreal tournament classic demo can have an online community for years this one should as well. Just give people the tools.

Deleted member 2620 · Oct 19, 2018

Why announce a cancellation when you can leave the option open to take it out of deep freeze later?

What they got done with a small team is neat and I hope a polished version happens some day.

Unreal Tournament 4 is dead. Why hasn't Epic made it official?

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