Epic is shutting down servers for Unreal Tournament, Rock Band, and several others

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? Epic Games has announced it will begin turning off what it calls "out-of-date" online services and servers for many of its legacy games. Most titles will still be playable offline, but not all of them.

From January 24, 2023, the following games will see all of their online services disabled unless otherwise noted:

• Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Unreal Tournament 3 (Epic plans to bring back online features via Epic Online Services in the future)
• Unreal Gold
• Unreal II: The Awakening
• 1000 Tiny Claws
• Dance Central 1-3 (Dance Central VR online multiplayer will remain available)
• Rock Band 1-3 (Rock Band 4 online multiplayer will remain available)
• Green Day: Rock Band
• The Beatles: Rock Band
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
• Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars

Epic has already started removing the impacted games from digital storefronts and disabling in-game DLC purchasing. The Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star have also been pulled, as has the mobile game DropMix. Battle Breakers will shut down on December 30, and Epic will refund any in-game purchases made within the last 180 days.

It doesn't end there, however, as Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band Companion app and SingSpace will also be shut down and inaccessible on January 24.

Epic could be working on a solution to appease disgruntled Unreal Tournament fans. A listing for Unreal Tournament 3 X has surfaced on Steam and is described as a free version of the classic first-person shooter with more than half a dozen online multiplayer modes as well as crossplay support between Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG. Curiously enough, a notice indicates the game is no longer available on the Steam store and the release date is listed as November 19, 2007 – the same day Unreal Tournament 3 was released.

Could Unreal Tournament 3 X be a remnant of the long-abandoned free Unreal Tournament game we first heard about in 2014 or is it just an updated of UT3 with crossplay?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96975-epic-shutting-down-servers-unreal-tournament-rock-band.html

 

[brucek]

I'd be more upset about the Rock Band closure if all my plastic instruments hadn't died long ago with replacements tough to come by.

 

[Nobina]

Unreal Tournament 1999 is one of the best shooters ever. From time to time I get in for some of that nostalgia. I never cared about multiplayer. As a kid I used to be scared seeing my cousin play and blow people up to pieces but shortly after I got hooked on it.

To this day I haven't chopped anyone up, contrary to then popular belief.

 

[psycros]

Unreal Tournament 1999 is one of the best shooters ever. From time to time I get in for some of that nostalgia. I never cared about multiplayer. As a kid I used to be scared seeing my cousin play and blow people up to pieces but shortly after I got hooked on it.

To this day I haven't chopped anyone up, contrary to then popular belief.

Maybe the pinnacle of LAN gaming, along with BF 1942 co-op.

 

[RudyBob]

Unreal was a fun game. It was too long if you can believe that. I came close to finishing but could not. I would have picked it up later but the save files went pfffft. Support this long for UT 3 is something.

 

[Adhmuz]

I didn't even know UT2004 servers were still running almost 20 years later, that game really had me hooked for a long time, the mods, user created maps and game modes added so much play-ability that never really existed in UT3 sadly. Was about to go dig out my 5 CD installer when I realized I had bought the Epic pack in Steam years ago and the game was actually still installed on my games drive! Going to fire it up and see if there is anyone still playing online.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

A real shame, getting friends together a few times a year to play the old titles is tons of fun, and it cant be costing epic much to keep them running (based on experience running custom servers for games in the past).

Thank god these old games often have dedicated server options for those of us that like playing them two decades later.

 

[Kam7r]

Omg UT99 was so good, I lost so many months of playtime on it , with all the mods it was awesome, one of the best fps ever made

 

[Burty117]

UT2004 is what got me into PC gaming, back then I was still going to school, went round a friends house and normally we'd sit and play PS2 on the TV but one day, I came round and his Dad had got him a computer, after about 30 seconds, I was hooked and built myself gaming PC's ever since.

I still go back to that game every so often, because less people are playing now its not as good but the custom maps and game modes, you forget when developers used to put that sort of effort in and give you the ability to make entire maps and modes without paying extra for DLC. Good times.

 

[Ravey]

Noooooo my childhood playing UT has officially died lol.

 

[Raytrace3D]

Ah brings back memories... I was ranked in the top 500 in NGWorldStats for a time on Facing Worlds with over 3M kills. lol I played a lot. haha

 

[Hysc84]

UT99 and UT2003 the best !!

 

[ZedRM]

Feeling the love for GOG ATM!

 

[Joey Rakas]

Oh man, crummy news. Was actually planning on throwing a small lan-party with UT3 on the list of games here in the next few months. Guess that game is off the table . Surely one of my friends still has a cracked copy of UT2004 on a drive somewhere. Oh drag and drop games of the past :\ LOL(lots of love) for the Unreal franchise.

 

[ZanardiZZ]

If Rock Band 3 didn't have custom songs (and the ability to add thousands of them), I would be a little sad to see it's servers go away.

 

[ZedRM]

Oh man, crummy news. Was actually planning on throwing a small lan-party with UT3 on the list of games here in the next few months. Guess that game is off the table . Surely one of my friends still has a cracked copy of UT2004 on a drive somewhere. Oh drag and drop games of the past :\ LOL(lots of love) for the Unreal franchise.

LAN parties are still possible. Any game that has LAN features will continue to have them.