One story, two bits of long awaited awesomeness. Epic Games announced on its official blog yesterday that the company is starting work on the next Unreal Tournament (UT). And if that’s not enough to sate your daily games news appetite, UT 4 (or whatever name is finally decided upon) is going to be completely free. Not “Free to Play” (F2P), aka “the best features hidden behind a pay wall”, it will be one hundred percent mahala.
In another twist, the blog said Epic will be making the game in collaboration with fans, and that the development process will be completely and totally transparent.
“We know that fans of the game are as passionate about Unreal Tournament as we are” Steve Polge, senior programmer and project lead at Epic wrote on the blog. “We know that you have great ideas and strong opinions about where the game should go and what it should be. So let’s do something radical and make this game together, in the open, and for all of us.”
Epic also said the new UT will be true to the game’s roots as a competitive shooter, which is great news for fans of the franchise’s fast-paced gunplay. It’s also being built using Unreal Engine 4, the latest of Epic’s incredible game engines.
Free but not F2P
The business model behind the game is rather interesting. Instead of making cash from game sales, Epic plans to allow gamers to make their own content for the game and sell it on a dedicated marketplace, just like Valve does with Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2. Epic will take a cut of each sale, and in the process allow talented artists and 3D modellers to make a bit of cash on the side.
The model has proved extremely successful for Valve, with some modellers having made enough money from the sale of their TF2 creations to quit their jobs since it went free-to-play a few years back. That’s because being free to download, more people get it which creates a bigger audience to sell stuff to. It’s quite clever.
Work in progress
There’s nothing to show yet, though. “We’re basically starting today,” said Epic’s David Spalinski during the company’s livestream of the announcement.
No word on specific platforms being targeted was given, but it’s safe to assume the next Unreal Tournament will be on PC, PS4 and Xbox One thanks to the power needed to run graphics powered by the immensely demanding Unreal Engine 4.
If you’re a game coder and you’re interested in helping out, check out the WANT TO GET INVOLVED? section of the blog post.
[Image – Unrealtournament.com]
