Epic Shutting Off Servers for a Bunch of Games on January 24th. Removing Games From Digital Sale.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-is-turning-off-online-services-and-servers-for-some-older-games

The list includes:

• 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

They also say "We have started removing games that were still available from all digital storefronts and are disabling any in-game DLC purchasing as of today.", which I assume means all the games listed above. The wording is kind of unclear to me.

They say they've also already taken down DropMix and Hatoful Boyfriend for Mac and Linux. Kind of shitty not to announce that sooner.

The makes me feel old, but I sure had some great times with Unreal Tournament 2004. I’ve still got my 5 disc copy (complete with Linux version!), which makes me feel even older somehow.

They're also shutting down the Rock Band mobile app. The app was critical for Rivals seasons in Rock Band 4. So, I think all of the Rock Bands are bound to get sunsetting sooner rather than later.

Just over a year after buying Harmonix and Epic is shutting down all their old games. Didn't take long.

I hope they aren't also turning off the dedicated server support for UTGOTY. I guess it's a relic of an older time, but I'd be pretty sad if Sniper Arena, Zark, Strangeglove, Bunnytrack were gone forever.

Videogame preservation remains one of the strongest arguments for piracy. Pretty gross that people can't take part in these games without it now.

That said, one of the oldest tricks in the piracy book was downloading the Unreal tournament freeware version and cracking it to allow online play. The demo had the best deathmatch maps on it already, and any others you just downloaded from the server as you joined. Ahhh, nostalgia...

Good to see Epic still don't give a shit about their back catalogue.

Link to VG247

This looks bad also in context of Epic Games recently having "upgraded" the Game of a Century Edition of Saints Row IV to the new Saints Row IV: Re-Elected version which is adding cross-play to the game, but does so by apparently forcing online play through Epic Online Services. I admit, playing Saints Row III and IV co-op via direct connection was shaky for some people, but it did work overall, and in light of Epic turning off online services for games they don't deem relevant anymore, that seems like a step toward the game possibly not being playable in co-op at all at some point.

If you own the game on GOG you can apparently still install the original SRIV version via the GOG Galaxy client, which might be a good idea just for preservation purposes, if you're into that kind of thing. The offline installer unfortunately has already been updated.

I had been sitting here racking my brain as to what Epic has anything to do with Rock Band until I realize they bought Harmonix.

As a big Rock Band fan, this is a gut punch. Those games survived on DLC and there are things you can do in Rock Band 3 that you just can't do in 4. And to give some more context to the problem with the Rock Band companion app: competing in Rivals often involves checking in on how your crew is doing relatively to others in the current week. Booting up the game every time to see if you need to give them an extra boost is impractical, and Rivals is one of the big reasons to keep playing 4. If you're serious about Rock Band, there are also stats and leaderboards provided in the companion app that you can't get in the game proper. This leaves an awful taste in my mouth.

@gamer_152: If you're not in a crew already, I will happily join you if and when they decide to put a bullet in RB4. The game got me through the pandemic. It was a part of my wedding a few years ago. This certainly feels the beginning of the end though.

Have Epic explained why they've pulled them? Unreal's been on my steam wishlist forever.

@shindig: Something about them wanting to focus solely on supporting their current "Epic Online Services" instead of whatever their old online system was.

I imagine they pulled the ones that have single player campaigns too because...they just don't care about their old stuff.