Epic: No New Unreal Tournament Games For Several Years

Epic is putting the Unreal Tournament on hold while it works on other things, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney said, adding that there aren’t plans for a new game for several years.

With Epic Games currently thriving thanks to the success of the Gears of War franchise, it seems the studio has shifted its priorities away from one of the series that helped get it as far as it has come: Unreal Tournament. While the franchise has a “long-term” future at Epic, studio founder Tim Sweeney told G4 that fans shouldn’t be expecting anything in the near future.

“Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority, but we’re planning not to release a major retail game in the series for several years,” Sweeney said. “So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives.”

A few other initiatives could mean a lot of things, but it surely includes Gears of War. The last Unreal Tournament to come out post-Gears was Unreal Tournament III in 2007, which didn’t really catch on nearly as much as Gears, though I don’t think anybody expected it to. Nevertheless, perhaps Epic has accepted that Unreal Tournament doesn’t have the same kind of appeal it once carried, and has moved on for the time being.