Rein outs "major expansion" for UT3

By Robert Purchese Published 20 October, 2008

"Midway is still very much the publisher."

Epic VP Mark Rein has told Eurogamer that relations with publisher Midway are fine, and that the pair are working together on a "major expansion" for Unreal Tournament 3.

"Midway is still very much the publisher of Unreal Tournament 3," said Rein, dismissing speculation that the two would part ways following a gloomy financial report for the publisher.

"In fact, we're working together on a major expansion to Unreal Tournament 3, that we expect will excite and grow our UT3 customer base which, incidentally, now numbers over a million units sold-through world-wide."

Rein offered no further details, but went on to point out that the two mysterious titles being canned by Midway refer to "licensed" properties and not those such as The Wheelman - a game he said is coming along very well.

Instead, he said an educated guess would assume there wouldn't be another NBA Ballers, for example, which makes sense.

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About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ChthonicEcho #1 3 years ago

    I've dropped UT3 due to lack of content; this expansion pack looks like a good opportunity for Epic to wake UT fans up.

  • Hunam #2 3 years ago

    The problem there is that there are alot of free maps of a very high quality to play. The main problem is the lack of servers and the fact that the game just isn't very good. Dunno if it's better on the consoles but I can't recommend it at all on the pc.

  • superjag86 #3 3 years ago

    I just hope it's not another UT2003/2004 situation...

  • lordloc #4 3 years ago

    Please add Assault back into the game. And Invasion! I'd play it alot more if those two modes were added back.

  • paketep #5 3 years ago

    Ohhhh, is this the one that adds content so they don't sell us half UT2004, a bit prettier, with consolized gameplay and even more consolized UI, for full price?.

    Or will they put their money where their mouth is and drop PC completely?

    Oh, well, at least UT3 was rather bug free and didn't come with GfWL, unlike that POS GoW.
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/08 @ 19:30

  • Chufty #6 3 years ago

    Maybe the major new expansion is a new UI, and a few thousand players to actually play with. That's all the game is lacking to be honest.

  • Eraysor #7 3 years ago

    Well I really hope they bring back Assault and the Skaarj. They could basically do a remake of 2004 and it would be great. I still play 2004, whereas UT3 has been gathering dust for months.
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/08 @ 20:19

  • Hunam #8 3 years ago

    I just want them to fuck all the vehicles off.

  • schoozzzmmii #9 3 years ago

    I'm with Chufty. It's a pretty fun game but the UI is terrible and its servers are pretty empty. Here's hoping the update gets a few more people online. And yeah, making the menu system suitable for a PC game would be cool too.

  • Triggerhappytel #10 3 years ago

    To be honest Epic probably don't really give a shit about the Unreal games any more, given that they must make money hand over fist from licencing the Unreal Engine 3 and the Gears series is now a far, far bigger seller.

    However, for those of us who aren't all that fussed over Gears, they could make a proper Unreal 3, not in the Tournament stylee.

  • chessboxer #11 3 years ago

    I hope it's good. UT3 does recapture feel of UT99 but UT2004 was the absolute nuts and had a decent single player campaign, unlike the crap that was labelled a campaign in UT3. For me, UT2004 is only bettered (slightly due to the larger community) by Counter-Strike: Source.

    Anyway, Epic needs something to add to their revenue now that Gears 2 has been leaked on the net. Thousands of people are downloading it as I type this.... and they said PC piracy was bad... it was only leaked (publicly) a few hours ago too.

    I'm sure many people will still buy it but, if your 360 is properly stealthed, you should be able to play online...

  • ScottyXTUK #12 3 years ago

    UT franshise is dead. Mark Rein is a fool if he thinks he can recapture the glory of the first UT.

    Edited by 1 at 21/10/08 @ 07:10

  • Beano #13 3 years ago

    I really liked UT3 on PS3... flawed but a lot of fun :)

    Hopefully they'll release the expansion very cheap or free to avoid fragmenting the playerbase.

  • bdc #14 3 years ago

    A million across all platforms is nothing compared to the success of UT99 and UT04-5. Sorry Epic, but your staple Unreal franchise is old and tired now.

  • Xerx3s #15 3 years ago

    Fuck UT. The unreal franchise died with the sequels that came after the originals. They've never come close to that perfection, if anything, they went further and further away.

    Bring on gow.

  • Nithron #16 3 years ago

    I actually love UT3. It's just a shame that online, the servers are usually a tad on the empty side.

    It definitely "feels" more like the original UT than 2k4 ever did. Especially after they dumped all the weird Egyptian shit - never did quite understand what that was all about.

  • Tiger_Walts #17 3 years ago

    The vehicles worked well in the slower pace of the console versions but vehicles on the PC weren't balanced. I really can't think of anything that Epic can offer to revive UT3. What they should do is offer an LBP type experience with their game engine, they tout what is pretty much a drag and drop UI for their game-play scripting. They could follow Bohemia Interactive's and Crytek's lead on editing tools and put out a real-time editor that uses drag and drop logic elements to create single-, multi- and cooperative-play levels.

  • nickthegun #18 3 years ago

    MR CROW!!

  • TitusCrow #19 3 years ago

    yes?

  • videogangs #20 3 years ago

    UT3 was a massive dissapointment for me. It just felt totally "off", even though they seemed to have done an ok job at nailed the handling. I think cross development was a big factor. I remember for years the hype around the graphics in the PC version was silly, and by the time it actually came out it looked painfully average (no AA and AF unless you force it through the drivers for a start, wtf?).

    Epic definately seem to have diverted all their resources on GoW (which is potentially a bigger MP hit than UT) but in the process they've fucked their community. What happened to the Epic that created the "make something Unreal" tourny? While I don't buy the whole PC gaming is dying thing, companies like Epic putting two fingers up to the community that made them and backing out making excuses about piracy is a joke. Thank god for companies like Valve.

    While I doubt there is anyone from Epic every likely to read this (too busy going for a quick dip in their money pool and having pretend fights with plastic lancers I'm guessing) here's what needs to get sorted if they release an expansion pack:

    Focus on deathmatch and CTF. As someone mentioned earlier, the vehicle map are easily the weakest parts.
    Sort the goddamn graphics options out- My year old 8800GT sleeps through x8 AA in this game, but it won't even let me enable it in the menus?
    Sort out the menus. It's painfully fucking obvious they've been designed to be navigated with an analogue stick- It's a small detail but I don't like feeling as if my mouse is wading around in toffee when I'm browsing for servers.
    Build a proper fucking community- Fragmenting your game across 3 platforms has done no good whatsoever. An official modding site, all nice and shiny with howto videos from developers, featured maps (which should make their way into regular patches, a la TF2) would probably breath some life into this franchise.
    Netcode- Either a)noone in the UK can be bothered with hosting this game, or b)there is some serious networking issues- everyone I've spoken to seems to notice the only servers they can get into are the other side of europe, or have a 60+ ping. That's not right!
    More regular, small patches- Nothing says "turkey" like an unsupported game. I think the last time I saw a patch was around spring.

    I guess the reason I'm so frustrated is because if you scrape off all the crap I can see the same wonderful game that entertained me back in 1999, but it's been corrupted by the scum and nonsense that populates the commercial side of games development nowadays. Ah well.

    Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

    Edited by 1 at 21/10/08 @ 11:38

  • =TSA=Sushi #21 3 years ago

    Greeting ladies and gentlemen.

    I am an avid fan of unrealtournament.

    The magic of UT 99 didn't follow the other versions. I am a proud member of a sniping clan, teamsnackattack.com.
    There is an impressive amount of Sniping clans around the world, should Epic games consider helping out the clans by providing maps and skins suitable for this purpose, or at least making a follow up of UT 99 skins "like the warmachine'' in a modernised way.

    I have spoken to many players throughout the world, ppl are saying unanimously, the magic did not follow the game.

    Maps like, Saving Private Ryan, The day after Tomorrow, 28 days later, Ruins type of maps, abbandonned Cities, maps good for 10 to 24 guys, good for clan matches, 8 vs 8.

    In a sense, sniping maps are suitable for any type with the game, CTF, Warfare, Ballrun, it's versatillity is beyond comparison.
    But not the other way around. A good sniping map needs some spots to hide , not wide open in the middle of the map.
    I strongly believe that if Epic games would consider this post.
    The majority of the clans would choose UT 3.

    We need maps, some skins less bulky.

    It's a win win situation here, once more UT could be number 1 as it was before, it's in the hands of epic games to think about it.

    Simply taking a look at the amout of clans on UT 99 still online plus the UT 2K4= profit, profit, profit.

    It would help the clans finding new members, thus keeping the communities alive, wich is important.

    Thank you.

    =TSA=Sushi.
    Edited by 2 at 20/11/08 @ 14:23