Shooter Fans, Rejoice! Unreal Tournament is Back

Today, during a live broadcast, Epic Games announced the return of Unreal Tournament. This time around, the game will be (mostly) free, and developed in part by the fans.

Now when I say mostly free, they aren’t planning on doing the same old small, optional bought content that other free games make their money on. Instead, the fans will be able to create and sell their own content for the game, where Epic will take a cut from each sale. Development on the game has only just started today, so there’s no news on a release window just yet, but they’re saying that it’s going to be “many months” before the game reaches a playable state. Every developmental move they make on this installment will be made public and open for comments and criticism.

This is a very cool and bold move on Epic’s part, but I can’t help being at least a little skeptical about it. The moment I heard this news, I thought of the free to play games that Tekken and Ghost Recon have tried, which aren’t exactly finding a lot of success. Still, long time shooter veterans and newer players alike will surely be interested in a game offering them a way to make money as opposed to just draining their wallets for the sake of more content. Only time will tell whether or not this approach will play out as well as it sounds, but my guess is that Unreal just might once again revolutionize the genre, hopefully changing how other developers handle things in the process.

Anyone looking to get in on this can make an account here, whether they want a hand in development or to just watch it all unfold.

Jeremy Harrison has been into gaming and just about everything nerdy or out of the norm for as long as he can remember. He likes to keep an open mind about things, but also has a strangely high amount of fun getting into a rant or good debate. . . which is probably why he was recruited to this site in the first place. You can Email Jeremy or follow Jeremy on Twitter @NightmareAsylum or Facebook