EPIC Games’ promised gamers a new free-to-play game, and it appears to have been quietly cancelled.
The company is best known for another free-to-play title, Fortnite, and so big things were expected from the release.
Unreal Tournament 3 was meant to be Epic’s next free-to-play arena shooter.
In December 2022, Epic shut down the servers for its Unreal Tournament games.
This is a series of FPS arena shooter games originally released in the early 2000s.
After a negative fan reaction to the server shutdown, Epic promised that it was preparing to make Unreal Tournament 3 free-to-play for all.
Not only would it be free-to-play, but there would apparently be cross-play between all online storefronts such as Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG.
A “no strings attached” experience was also promised with Epic writing: “No microtransactions and no strings attached.
“This is the fully-featured, award-winning first-person shooter you fell in love with… completely free.”
However, as spotted by Kotaku, the store pages for Unreal Tournament 3 have already been taken down.
There has been no information from Epic Games, and mentions of the free game have been removed from store pages.
The Steam page for Unreal Tournament 3 is still available, but mention of the free-to-play version has been removed.
The game’s original version is also no longer purchasable, giving no one access to the game.
When asked for comment on the situation by Kotaku, Epic Games said: “We have nothing to share”.
While this means there is no official announcement of the games cancellation that is more than likely the case here.
If you were holding out hope for Epic Games’ next free-to-play arena shooter, you would probably be waiting a lot longer.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
