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Epic Games Reveals Free, Community-Driven Unreal Tournament [Updated]

Hip Hop

Member
Epic Games has announced a new Unreal Tournament, which it will co-develop with the Unreal Engine 4 development community, for PC, Mac, and Linux.

Developed in Unreal Engine 4 by Epic and the community.

Unreal Tournament development starts today. PC, Mac, Linux. Free. Not F2P, just free.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05...+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
Fans with an Unreal Engine 4 subscription can participate in the crowdsourced development the next Unreal Tournament, with fan-created mods playing an integral role in its life post-launch. Epic intends to create a marketplace where creators can give away or sell their custom content. Epic's cut from those sales is what will pay for the game.

"We see this as an ongoing project with no end date," project lead Steve Polge told IGN. "Unreal Tournament will be the base both for the continued evolution of the competitive FPS, and as a great way to enable aspiring developers to realize their visions for this kind of game."

Coming Soon:

"Unreal Tournament won't be available for some time, but as soon as there's a playable alpha, Epic will launch it so anyone can play. Fans can also contribute feedback in Epic's forums if they aren't development-minded."

Mods will play a role
Fans with an Unreal Engine 4 subscription can participate in the crowdsourced development the next Unreal Tournament, with fan-created mods playing an integral role in its life post-launch. Epic intends to create a marketplace where creators can give away or sell their custom content. Epic's cut from those sales is what will pay for the game.

From the Livestream: "Anything that Epic Games makes will be free"


--

Update:

Epic said:
The Future of Unreal Tournament Begins Today.

Work on the future of Unreal Tournament begins today, and we’re happy to announce that we’re going to do this together, with you. We know that fans of the game are as passionate about Unreal Tournament as we are. 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.

Here’s the plan:

• We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today.
• 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.
• If you are a fan and you want to participate, create a free account and join the forum discussion.
• All code and content will be available live to UE4 developers on GitHub.
• The game will be true to its roots as a competitive FPS.
• Development will be focused on Windows, Mac and Linux.

So what’s the catch?

• It will take many months until the game is playable by gamers. This is real development from scratch.
• When the game is playable, it will be free. Not free to play, just free.
• We’ll eventually create a marketplace where developers, modders, artists and gamers can give away, buy and sell mods and content. Earnings from the marketplace will be split between the mod/content developer, and Epic. That’s how we plan to pay for the game.

A lot of this is brand new for Epic, and we don’t yet have everything figured out. Things will probably definitely 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.

Want to get involved?

• Want more detail on the project? Read our wiki.
• Want to participate & give feedback? These forums are the place to do it. Sign up for a free account here to join Unreal Engine 4 community.
• Just interested in getting updates? Subscribe to our newsletter.
• In case you want to check out the classic Unreal Tournament games, we’ve put them on sale on Steam.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?4474-The-Future-of-Unreal-Tournament!
 
I dunno if i should be happy or sad.

EDIT: "Mark Rein, the Gears of War and Unreal Tournament studio's VP, teased a new game last week. This Unreal Tournament will be a free game -- "not free to play, just free."

Okay. Now I'm just confused. I hope it's legitimately free not f2p/ pay to win
 

Silky

Banned
"It's Not Free to Play. It's Free. Everything that Epic will make will be Free."

As heard on the stream.
 

EMT0

Banned
Not F2P, straight up free. I think that's kind of crazy, but it's good to hear. Epic probably wants to further flesh out UE4 and sees this as a very good way to go about it.
 

dLMN8R

Member
So basically, it's exactly what I hoped it would be :-D

I cannot comprehend why people wouldn't want this game to be free to play.

First, there's the simple idea of expectations. It's so blatantly obvious that any future Unreal Tournament will be free to play that you're irresponsibly setting yourself up for disappointment if you pretend to believe otherwise.

Second, there are way too many alternative competitive games these days. Charging people to buy a new Unreal Tournament will instantly and severely limit the potential audience as people instead flock to games they already bought like Counter-Strike, or free-to-play Mobas. CS:GO will probably be free-to-play before long too.


Most importantly though, free-to-play could be awesome for Unreal Tournament as long as its implementation isn't botched.

Imagine Unreal Tournament as the seeding ground to get a ton of developers onboard creating tons of mods - and having the ability to sell those mods too if they want. Just like Steam Workshop and the Steam Marketplace, it's an opportunity for the vast majority of content to be free, but also deserving modders to make money if they make something worthwhile.


I can easily picture Epic as positioning Unreal Tournament as the perfect way for people to start experimenting with Unreal Engine 4, enticing them to pay for a UE4 subscription. Get in millions of people playing it since it's free to play, all of Epic's content is available for free, and make money by selling UE4 subscriptions and allowing developers to sell their own stuff and taking a cut of it.



But even better.
 

Phil4000

Member
PC, Mac and Linux only!!! Thank God....
Obviously running on Unreal Engine 4, and I love the community collaboration approach.

So Fortnite and Unreal Tournament 4 only on PC.

Epic is back baby!
 

bidguy

Banned
completely free ? no micro transactions ? shit i might spend more time on my pc if this turns out to be good
 

element

Member
The idea of free is pretty cool, though I'm interested why users would want to contribute if there wasn't a way to monetize on their creations.

TF2 is 'free', but if you want the crocodile hat that some random person made, then you can buy it. Same with DOTA2.
 

Randdalf

Member
So it's essentially a developer-coordinated mod? Sounds like an interesting way of doing things, hopefully it turns out well!
 
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