Unreal Tournament Coming Back

For nearly a decade developer Epic Games has teased a return to their flagship franchise Unreal Tournament in almost every way, shape, and form. And yet, the company has yet to make good on those teases.

Soon, though, it appears Epic Games is finally ready to say more about an Unreal Tournament sequel, or at least what they have in store for the future of the franchise. In fact, UT fans should have more information about the franchise by this time Thursday afternoon.

The purported Unreal Tournament details will apparently be included as part of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 development community event, which is slated for this coming Thursday at 2pm EST. There, Epic is expected to, as Paul Meegan teased, reveal "the future of Unreal Tournament."

Doing Meegan one better was Epic Vice President and Co-Founder Mark Rein, who didn't mince words when he confirmed, "Yes UT coming back," on Twitter.

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Of course, neither member of the Epic Games team would say in what form fans could expect Unreal Tournament, but you can bet the title will be a major showpiece for the studio's new Unreal Engine 4 engine. Thus far, we only know of one Epic Games, UE4-developed game: the survival title Fortnite; but, we'd venture to guess that an Unreal Tournament sequel would generate even greater hype for the graphics engine.

At the same time, it's unclear how much demand there is for Unreal Tournament what with all the Call of Dutys, Battlefields, and Titanfalls that exist. Back when PC gaming was king, you couldn't do much better than Unreal Tournament — it was practically the center of the universe as far as competitive gaming was concerned.

Now, console gaming has staked its own claim on the competitive space, especially in the FPS genre. Or, at the very least, there's a greater combination of both PC games and console games on display, even if PC gaming is generating greater global revenue.

Still, there's no duplicating the hours of Unreal Tournament matches that captured a whole generation of gamers. Here's hoping that what Epic has to show on Thursday speaks to that nostalgic idea.

What are your hopes for the next Unreal Tournament? Do you think the franchise still has a place in today's market?

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Source: Epic Games