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Epic Games are killing off a bunch of classics like Unreal Tournament

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Epic Games announced today they're killing off a bunch of classic games removing them from stores and turning off their online services for retro delights like Unreal Tournament.

Why are they doing this? They're consolidating their services directly into their modern all-in-one Epic Online Services, so they don't want anything not using that to stick around that they have to maintain.

Here's the full list of titles being removed from stores (some are already gone like Unreal Tournament), and having their online play turned off on January 24 - 2023:

  • 1000 Tiny Claws
  • Dance Central 1-3 
    • Note: Dance Central VR online multiplayer will remain available
  • Green Day: Rock Band
  • Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
  • Rock Band 1-3 
    • Note: Rock Band 4 online multiplayer will remain available
  • The Beatles: Rock Band
  • Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
  • Unreal Gold
  • Unreal II: The Awakening
  • Unreal Tournament 2003
  • Unreal Tournament 2004
  • Unreal Tournament 3
    • Note: We have plans to bring back online features via Epic Online Services in the future.
  • Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition

Hopefully the community (like perhaps OldUnreal), will find a way to get online going again for some of the classic Unreal Tournament games. Otherwise, that's a whole lot of FPS history being lost.

For Unreal Tournament 3, it looks like they're re-branding it as Unreal Tournament 3 X and making it free to play, as you can see they already did it on the Steam page and you can see all the changes on SteamDB history but it's not actually live they're just re-purposing the Steam page.

On top of that they also said they're removing Linux and macOS versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star today. No reason given for either.

If you do want to stock up, the old Unreal games are still on GOG but probably won't be for long.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Epic Games, Misc
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38 comments
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akselmo Dec 14, 2022
Well that sucks. Hopefully a community version of the server tools will pop up.
raptor85 Dec 14, 2022
They don't even host the online play in 2k4, they migrated that to steam's server browser instead of their services a while ago...this is just petty. Thankfully it'll still be playable as everything in 99/2k4 is just direct ip join anyways (the browser just downloads a list to your client, so a manual list can just be made available) but still...
lejimster Dec 14, 2022
I have physical copies of all those Unreal games, back from a time when I was a fan of Epic games. They were good times. Couldn't care less these days.
slaapliedje Dec 14, 2022
Quoting: lejimsterI have physical copies of all those Unreal games, back from a time when I was a fan of Epic games. They were good times. Couldn't care less these days.
They still have fun potential on retro machines.

I still remember players of UT2k4 accusing Matrox Parhelia users as cheating with their 3 monitor setups! I had one, it was... pardon the pun, epic.
Klaas Dec 14, 2022
More “good news”.

On the other hand. If they want to pretend that Unreal/Unreal Tournament never happened, it means we can all get access to the source code, right?
syylk Dec 14, 2022
So many hours dumped into UT99/2003/2004, thanks to icculus! Oh the fond memories, when Epic was still a brand to cheer for... I still have the physical copies of all of them.
Cybolic Dec 14, 2022
Well, it had been a while since they've had negative publicity in the press; guess it was time to make sure people don't forget to avoid them.
MadWolf Dec 14, 2022
hi
you can still get Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition, Unreal 2: The Awakening Special Edition, Unreal Tournament GOTY, Unreal Gold on GOG

and for the other games is Epic Games wanting new players to set sail to get a copy??
Koopacabras Dec 14, 2022
I wonder how much maintaining these servers costs? there are places where you can rent a multiplayer server for 10-15 bucks. Either Epic is really desperate cutting costs or dunnoh because it doesn't adds up.

otoh Epic Online services is so great that it doesn't work with their inhouse games, It's like Left for dead or Portal not working with Steam imao.


Last edited by Koopacabras on 14 December 2022 at 6:38 pm UTC
TheSHEEEP Dec 14, 2022
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I honestly did not expect them to still have any of those running.
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