Epic Games’ hands are certainly full at the moment with Fortnite, as well as the new Epic Games store, but the developer was also working on an all-new version of its first-person shooter Unreal Tournament. However, the company has now indicated that it is leaving the multiplayer game behind, and will no longer be developing it.
Speaking to Variety, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that although Unreal Tournament is still available to download, it isn’t being “actively developed” at this time.
“We’ve recently worked with GOG on making classic Epic Games titles available and we’re planning to bring more of them to the store in their original glory.”
Variety added that resources “were being pulled from other parts of the studio” to instead go toward Fortnite.
Unreal Tournament, which aimed to recapture the gameplay style of the pioneering multiplayer shooter, was still in pre-alpha stage, but was already letting players try the game, earn rewards for multiplayer, and complete offline challenges. Multiple maps were also in the works, including the nostalgia-fueled “Facing Worlds” and the “Titan Pass” fortress.
If Epic Games’ new plan to bring classic titles to the store pans out, however, it’s possible we could see older Unreal titles build a new following online. Multiplayer has certainly come a long way since Unreal’s heyday, and Epic’s own games are responsible for much of that, but the classic twitchy combat of old-school shooters still has an audience. Most recently, Bethesda has been supporting it with the free Quake Champions on PC, which recently ditched some of its random loot box features in favor of a more direct progression system.
Fortnite will likely remain Epic Games’ primary focus for the foreseeable future, with continuous updates coming with new weapons, gameplay features, skins, and lore tidbits. The game is reportedly adding a separate “Sandbox” mode this week, as well, which will be separate from the battle royale mode and “Save the World.” It will offer players the ability to create their own environments with scenery and props as they see fit, and you can create your own game types and rule-sets if you want to turn it into a multiplayer map.
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