After the so-so response to Unreal Tournament 3 (revisiting Facing Worlds was nice!), it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Epic Games isn't in a hurry to return to the Unreal universe, but CEO Mike Capps made that clear in an interview with Forbes today.

"Unreal and Unreal Tournament continue to have a huge influence on the studio here, even though we’re not currently working on an Unreal IP project," said Capps.

It's been more than a decade since the first Unreal game hit the market on May 22, 1998. You think J.J. Abrams has a tendency to overuse lens flare? You never played Unreal, then. That was back when Epic Games was actually called Epic MegaGames and Cliff Bleszinski was quickly working his way up the design ranks at the company. He was actually co-lead on Unreal, as well as a level designer.

Unreal II: The Awakening wasn't released until 2003 and was not a direct continuation of the original game. Heck, it wasn't developed by Epic, with Bleszinski and company acting as project producers.

By then, Unreal had spun off into Unreal Tournament in 2000, which continues to define the series. Unreal Tournament 3 had trouble finding an audience on both PC and consoles, but it was notable for allowing mod makers to export their PC creations easily to the PlayStation 3 audience. Microsoft didn't allow that feature on the Xbox 360 version, which arrived months later.

After the so-so response to Unreal Tournament 3 (revisiting Facing Worlds was nice!), it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Epic Games isn't in a hurry to return to the Unreal universe, but CEO Mike Capps made that clear in an interview with Forbes today.

"Unreal and Unreal Tournament continue to have a huge influence on the studio here, even though we’re not currently working on an Unreal IP project," said Capps.

It's been more than a decade since the first Unreal game hit the market on May 22, 1998. You think J.J. Abrams has a tendency to overuse lens flare? You never played Unreal, then. That was back when Epic Games was actually called Epic MegaGames and Cliff Bleszinski was quickly working his way up the design ranks at the company. He was actually co-lead on Unreal, as well as a level designer.

Unreal II: The Awakening wasn't released until 2003 and was not a direct continuation of the original game. Heck, it wasn't developed by Epic, with Bleszinski and company acting as project producers.

By then, Unreal had spun off into Unreal Tournament in 2000, which continues to define the series. Unreal Tournament 3 had trouble finding an audience on both PC and consoles, but it was notable for allowing mod makers to export their PC creations easily to the PlayStation 3 audience. Microsoft didn't allow that feature on the Xbox 360 version, which arrived months later.

I'm kind of glad they aren't doing anything Unreal. Unreal Tournament 3 was really bad in my opinion.

I remember when I first loaded the original Unreal up. I stopped in mid-bite of my sandwhich when I saw the castle it flew around in 3D before the game starts. I was blown away heh.

UT3 was fine. Maybe not as good as 2k4, but it played fine, looked great, and I still play it all the time to this day.

Unreal 2 really shit the bed for that franchise, I think.

Cliffy B is too busy whining on Twitter about 8/10 reviews for Gears of War 3.

aww. I really wanted to see that tech demo be developed into a game

I'm kind of glad they aren't doing anything Unreal. Unreal Tournament 3 was really bad in my opinion.

Unreal Tournament 2014, calling it.

I wouldn't describe exporting your UT3 creation to the PS3 as easy :)

@Swoxx: That wasn't an Unreal game. And that's probably exactly what they're working on.

I had fun with Unreal Tournament III, but I'm not exactly heart broken that they aren't making another quite yet.

@Slayeric said:

@Swoxx: That wasn't an Unreal game. And that's probably exactly what they're working on.

I remember seeing some kind of insane new unreal engine demo, but maybe that wasn't epic's work

Edit: Yeah it was, this one

You know what, the topic of this article screwed me up, nevermind.

@Swoxx said:

I remember seeing some kind of insane new unreal engine demo, but maybe that wasn't epic's work

NM lolz. Anyway, Epic's gonna do their bro-ish thing and some people are gonna buy it. It works for them, I guess. I wouldn't mind seeing a new Jazz Jackrabbit. It would be badass in UE3.

@Sooty: I don't see the big deal if I was Cliffy I'd be upset too that's the biggest game they've worked on.Besides unlike most other developers Cliffy B is vocal about alot of things so it's easy to understand that he got upset and talked about it on the spot on instinct.I could totally see his POV on this.Not saying that the reviews are wrong but that Cliffy just reacted on the spot and didn't really think of the effect or maybe he just doesn't care which I could see too.

@Agent47 said:

@Sooty: I don't see the big deal if I was Cliffy I'd be upset too that's the biggest game they've worked on.Besides unlike most other developers Cliffy B is vocal about alot of things so it's easy to understand that he got upset and talked about it on the spot on instinct.I could totally see his POV on this.Not saying that the reviews are wrong but that Cliffy just reacted on the spot and didn't really think of the effect or maybe he just doesn't care which I could see too.

I just find it bizarre that you can claim someone is "hating" by giving a game an 8, how is that a bad score?! I'm not that surprised by it, it doesn't exactly improve much over the second game. Horde seems less intense than before with the exception of the boss waves and I preferred the campaign of 2.

@RE_Player92

I'm kind of glad they aren't doing anything Unreal. Unreal Tournament 3 was really bad in my opinion.

I wish gamers could expand their vocabulary just a tiny bit. Everything is either terrible or incredible.

Do you honestly believe the game was really bad?

I'm kind of glad they aren't doing anything Unreal. Unreal Tournament 3 was really bad in my opinion.

The first Unreal game was my very first competitive multiplayer experience ever. I think i was 9

That's a shame, but also a good thing. Unreal 1 is one of my best loved games, mostly because of the sense of isolation exploring this strange and beautiful alien world. It had a surprisingly good tragic story for an FPS too, although it's interesting way of telling it relied on the player seeking it out so most completely bypassed it.

I don't think there's a place for that kind of single player FPS any more, and I totally get why a lot of people didn't like the original anyway. They wanted Halo, which I'd argue learned a lot from Unreal. If they made a sequel they'd probably destroy my memories of it, and Unreal II was certainly not encouraging.

UNREAL is one game i think epic SHOULD remake, with of course the inevitable console port, graphics boost, etc. i seriously can't be the only one that thinks this??? maybe i am i dont know

You know, I just recently installed UT3 again just for the heck of it, and was surprised to find the online still pretty active. I had no trouble finding games and actually quite enjoyed the online multiplayer. I'd never really played UT3 before. 
  
    @the_r0n1n_named_47 said:

UNREAL is one game i think epic SHOULD remake

Not really sad about this. Would rather have them focus on Gears then Unreal.

Unreal Tournament 3 was great, just lame that they tried a real campaign, even though they left it open for a sequel. But it was funny and miss that kind of game. They tried to expand it too much I think but it was not a bad game, it just is a relic of a time before but still worth playing.

I would love a balls out next gen Unreal remake.

that headline made me very confused for a second. but then i realized you were talking about the franchise and not the engine

Great, one less FPS to worry about.

@RobinOttens: I could be wrong, but I seem to vaguely remember a fan project remaking Unreal, and Epic not being too happy about it.

UT3 kinda screwed itself over with poor marketing, mixed messaging and confused, bad timing.

I remember all too well the big push they made for the PS3 version - not exactly the bread and butter console/community for that franchise or genre. They left the PC gamers disenfranchised, feeling that their version was taking a backseat to a console version and they straight up told everyone that the 360 version would be vastly inferior (and significantly delayed) to the other versions in every way.

They should really make sure their ducks are all in a row before the next installment or they risk losing an even bigger chunk of weight that the Unreal franchise name carries (carried?).

I agree with Unreal 1 having a great sense of isolation and was a really beautiful looking game for it's time. I'm not super confident about Epic pulling off that vibe if they did an Unreal now.

Also, I wonder why they haven't released Unreal or UT99 on XBLA or PSN. Unreal especially would work well with a controller.

UT3 was fine. Maybe not as good as 2k4, but it played fine, looked great, and I still play it all the time to this day.

If this means that tech demo video things gets made into a real-ass game, then I will be happy. Assuming it's good. Which it probably will be. This is Epic, after all.

This article reminded me that UT3 exists (or existed).

that headline made me very confused for a second. but then i realized you were talking about the franchise and not the engine

I still remembering running Unreal for the first time and watching that fly through sequence. 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics for life.

I'm still hoping we get another UT game someday, but it's always nice to have a break.

I hope they focus on Shadow Complex 2. I was really hoping the sequal was going to be in this years Summer of Arcade.

The older Unreal Tournament games are still fun, so this doesn't break my heart. However, I would like to see a new one, but if we need to wait for several more years than I am fine. The past few weeks I have been playing quite a bit of UT2K4. And while the community isn't massive, there are still people playing and it's STILL a lof of fun.

As far as UT3 goes, I thought the game was just fine. It played like I thought Unreal Tournament should play. It just never seemed to gain much following, and multiplayer FPS games were changing at the time.

@MooseyMcMan said:

If this means that tech demo video things gets made into a real-ass game, then I will be happy. Assuming it's good. Which it probably will be. This is Epic, after all.

I wouldn't mind an open-world, Blade Runner inspired, Deus Ex playing, but better playing videogame.

@Delta_Ass said:

Unreal 2 really shit the bed for that franchise, I think.

Legend Entertainment did Unreal 2 though.

@Palaeomerus said:

@Delta_Ass said:

Unreal 2 really shit the bed for that franchise, I think.

Legend Entertainment did Unreal 2 though.

Well... Epic shouldn't have asked Legend to do that for them then.

Hindsight.is 20/20. Foresight is less effective.

@RE_Player92: I just wanted to point out that you did not say it was "bad", but you said it was "really bad". Really bad and terrible are pretty similar.

And I only responded to your comment because of your strong disdain for the word "gamer". What would you prefer? Game connoisseur?

Well they are obviously working on Jazz Jackrabbit and Gears of War Math.

@Jesel: I just don't like the term gamer. I don't like how people use it to label themselves just because they like or have an interest in games. I like food but I don't label myself as an eater, same can be said for other interests one has.

@RE_Player92 said:

@Jesel: I just don't like the term gamer. I don't like how people use it to label themselves just because they like or have an interest in games. I like food but I don't label myself as an eater, same can be said for other interests one has.

do you read food blogs and watch trailers for the sequel to "beef" or "chicken" and write comments on food critic web pages commentating on the general use of slang in the food eating community?

They should try outsourcing it. Or letting Chair or People Can Fly do it. Unreal should be a bigger deal to modern gamers.

I mean, it's no Quake, but....

:)

@RE_Player92: Yeah but people who are really into food label themselves as "Foodie" or "Gourmond". People label themselves so that they can easily put that part of their personality out to be recognized by other people of the same type. I dont see why its something to take such an issue with.

"Unreal and Unreal Tournament continue to have a huge influence on the studio here, even though we’re not currently working on an Unreal IP project," said Capps.

That just sounds like the kind of lip service thing you have to say to not piss off that persistent-yet-slowly-dwindling Unreal/UT playerbase. I just can't imagine that they have any intent of making a new game in either of those series anytime soon.

It just seems like it wouldn't be profitable enough for them to consider doing. These days, FPS games don't always have to be in a realistic setting, but they apparently need to be fairly serious and gritty for people to buy into them. Bulletstorm didn't sell particularly well, despite being a pretty neat idea, and I think that's because the weapons and levels are just sort of goofy, in the same way that pretty much everything about UT's weapons and levels are goofy. I'm fine with that, but apparently the masses are not.

They're lying. What they mean to say is no Unreal for consoles. Expect some PC version announced next year released late that year or early into the next.