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New Unreal Tournament in development, and it'll be absolutely free

Epic Games confirms it has started work on next entry in the classic shooter series; coming to Windows, Linux, and Mac; runs on Unreal Engine 4.

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Epic Games announced today that is has started work on an all-new Unreal Tournament game. Interestingly, the Unreal Engine 4-powered game will be entirely free when it's released. Not free-to-play, completely free, Epic Games said. A "small core team" is currently working on the game, which is coming to Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Development on the game began today, May 8, Epic Games said. The studio plans to develop the new Unreal Tournament game "in the open," as a collaboration between Epic Games, Unreal Tournament fans, and Unreal Engine 4 developers. "The game will be true to its roots as a competitive FPS," Epic Games says.

Epic Games cautioned that it will take "many months" until the studio has a build of the game that's playable. "This is real development from scratch," the company says.

"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," Epic Games said. "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."

Today's Unreal Tournament news was announced during a special livestream. It's a major surprise, as just two months ago, Epic Games cofounder Tim Sweeney said no new Unreal Tournament game was in development.

You can read more about the new Unreal Tournament game at its newly launched Wiki page and Unreal Engine 4 forums.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Avatar image for RICHARDuk
RICHARDuk

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Any Specs On How High a PC rig You will Need To Play IT?

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deactivated-637d15bfb1440

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Uh, they *just started developing it.*

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RC-Sev

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It's so hard to be happy about free games these days.

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deactivated-5fbd0ee14cee1

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Well thats because of shitty mobile games and other EA crap giving it a bad rep

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Timmzy27

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No PS4/X1 version?? lame.

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ghost59

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<< LINK REMOVED >> this isn't being made by epic. its being made by the pc community.

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BldgIrsh

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Your consoles can't handle above 60 FPS.

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zrex2metagor

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<< LINK REMOVED >> And they blamed us for begging about GTA 5 *yawn* dont want your console shit consolobot, but still nice to see you QQing over no ps4/xb1.

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NoahRoalson

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PC only=Good!

F2P=Meh!



This will either be completely awesome or a massive let down, I am looking forward to seeing this.

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Avatar image for deactivated-637d15bfb1440
deactivated-637d15bfb1440

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<< LINK REMOVED >>It's not F2P, though, it's the full, whole game for free. << LINK REMOVED >> provides a much better explanation of how the new Unreal Tournament - game will be developed.

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RC-Sev

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@WereCatf @NoahRoalson I don't know how to read, can you address some key features?

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RC-Sev

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Hehehehe.
A Soviet Union soldier might have some great ideas regarding battle, indeed.

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Avatar image for deactivated-637d15bfb1440
deactivated-637d15bfb1440

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>I'm sure your grandfather could offer some interesting bits to the team, picking his brain, so to speak.

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RC-Sev

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Oh, nice. I'll call my local necromancer, see if he can make it happen.

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Avatar image for deactivated-637d15bfb1440
deactivated-637d15bfb1440

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>Well, basically the article says it's free, it's awesome and even your dead grandfather will roll around in his grave over excitement. Oh, and he's invited to take a part in the development of it.

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Saidrex

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Learn to read - FREE, not play2free

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santinegrete

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I can't think of other game saga I enjoyed that sounds good with "free" "freemium" "f2p". I really liked shooting bots, but the skill based arena of this game was a delight with vicious human players. This are good news.

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GreenMan

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Sounds to me like they'll be using UT4 as a way to promote UE4 and entice developers in, a trojan horse so to speak. Similar to how they gave away a large chunk of the UT3 content away with UDK to get the ball rolling for new developers.

They won't make as much money from UT4 directly, but they'll make a lot more in the long run if they establish a large, vibrant third party community which they can take royalties from. Farming rather than hunting. It also sounds like the cost to make the game will be much lower as well so it won't take much to recoup.

My guess based my thoughts above is that it will be a solid product and gorgeous to look at as you'd expect a showpiece to be, but it won't do much to break new ground or be outstanding in its own right. I could be wrong though of course.

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Kunasha

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<< LINK REMOVED >> This is pretty much what they're doing, yes. And to be honest with you I don't see the problem with it.
Yeah, they're doing an engine, but they're also giving us a free game. Which part of this is bad? I like engine demos. I like free games. Win-win. For them and us. Probably more for us to be honest.
I also think you're quite right that it won't break much new ground in terms of gameplay innovation, even if it does break new ground in terms of the development process. This will be a very traditional, arcade-y shooter. But of course, with everyone being allowed to not just pick a few boxes and "design" their own gamemode but actually being allowed to program and model any game mode they want from scratch, the amount of innovate gamemodes and maps will be huge.

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MAD_AI

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I would really just throw wads of cash at whomever recreates return to Na Pali or UT'99, too bad they just started development today.

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branketra

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This is amazing.

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xbr85

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"Not free-to-play, completely free, Epic Games said"

Error, unable to process statement. Meltdown imminent...

6 • 
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GSGuy321

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BOOOOOOOOOOM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah baby !

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xantufrog

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xantufrog  Moderator

so stoked - I used to rock out on UT'99-2003 so hard. The LAN parties!

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BabeNewelll

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I need to hug someone , epic I could kiss you.

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RexPowerColt

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Hug your own fat rolls, easy for you.

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MAD_AI

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This is plain awesome, modders can make really great things without publisher constraints and Epic is offering them monetary incentives to do it.


Other than that, I'm just glad to have another good old fashioned arena shooter, just give me my flak cannon.

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RexPowerColt

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Screw crap cannon, give me pulse rifle

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dysonlu

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>

It's either Shock Rifle or Pulse Gun -- there is no "pulse rifle".

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SnappySnake

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In other words, it will be a piece of crap.

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shingui5

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Frankly, if they aren't gonna try and make money of off it, then yeah, it'll be crap. Fortunately, they've said they'll implement a marketplace at some point, in a Dota 2 style, so continued support might still be possible.

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billlabowski

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@shingui5 @SnappySnake They're making money off of mods sold in the marketplace.

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billlabowski

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Sweet! PC only! I love it, no dumbed down console garbage. Thank you Epic! Can't wait for updates through UE4 Marketplace.

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dysonlu

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Why would releasing on consoles dumb down the PC version? How would it even affect you, playing on the PC? This stupid console elitist hating is pretty retarded.

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billlabowski

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Everything. Graphics, gameplay, dumbed down net code, lack of mod support, DLC garbage that you console turds flock to.

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dysonlu

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@billlabowsk

Euh, did you even read and understand my comment? Looks like you've been dumbed down too.

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surrealme

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I was never a big Unreal Tournament fan, but I freaking love seeing developers embrace user made content and letting those content creators monetize their hard work. It's great for modders, 3D artists, and in my opinion, for the industry. As someone who's been making part of my living by creating and selling game content for the past ten years, this is great news.

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andmcq

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Yuk. Free means itlll be cheap.

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zrex2metagor

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<< LINK REMOVED >> how exactly does your sentence make any sense? "Free means it'll be cheap." The entire sentense is a contradiction. Things can be cheap, expensive or free, but 'Free means cheap' is just.....awful english, go back to school Mr Troll

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andmcq

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Cheaply built. Obviously.

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thermalmotion

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Forgive me if I trust the passionate people at Epic I just listened to for over an hour, not your negative little sentence.

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andmcq

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> So do I. But let's not forget the recent UT attempts and that this is F2P rubbish.

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mkeezay22

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@andmcq No it means it will be free, cheap implies your paying a little bit
.they have the tools to make it a great game and I doubt they will disappoint.

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andmcq

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@mkeezay22 Cheap from a development point of view. This will be used purely as a marketing tool for unreal engine 4

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Stebsis

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I think you should be even more excited if they want to promote UE4 with this, they want to make the best game they possibly can to show off the engine, what it can do etc. so it has to be really good, otherwise people might get turned off from UE4.

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deactivated-60b838d2a137f

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<< LINK REMOVED >> But user created content = lots o' potential!

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