The wait is finally over as Epic have just announced that they are starting the development of a brand Unreal Tournament. Staying true to their word, the game would be powered by Unreal Engine 4 and it would be free (not free to play, absolutely free)
The game would be developed by members from three parties namely, the Unreal Engine 4 team, developers of the original Unreal Tournament and the fans! According to the official blog post, EPIC wanted to “do something radical” and therefore they plan to “make this game together, in the open, and for all of us.”
From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates.
All code and content will be available live to UE4 developers on GitHub.
EPIC plan to open a marketplace so that people can buy/sell mods and other content. That earning would be split between EPIC and the developer and that is how EPIC plan to recoup its costs.
Being a ‘community-powered’ game, it is bound to run into a lot of problems and they believe the same community would work together to solve the issues.
A lot of this is brand new for Epic, and we don’t yet have everything figured out. Things will
probablydefinitely go wrong from time to time, and when they do, we’ll have to work through them together. There will be a lot of tough decisions to make, and not every feature will make it into the game. But if you’re a fan of Unreal Tournament, a UE4 developer, or a future modder – or if you just want to learn how we make games – we hope you’ll join us. It’s going to be fun.
EPIC assures us that the game would stick to its FPS roots so the fans of the series need not worry about the game swaying away from its original gameplay. If you want to get involved in the project, head over to the wiki for details.
There is no ETA provided yet as it would take many months before the game gets up and running, after all, Epic’s David Spalinski said “We’re basically starting today” . The development would be focused on Windows, Mac and Linus (sorry console fans).
This news really made my day as i have been a huge fan of the series and I’m sure all the ‘Battlefields’ and ‘Call of Duties’ of the world would take the back seat if EPIC can provide the same experience the original Unreal Tournament did. What about you? Let us know in the comments!
