UT2007 wrap-up: Names, Ports, and Slips
Posted by inpheaux on January 25th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Word on the street earlier in the week was that we'd be getting some hefty UT 2007 news today. As expected, we did. Also as expected, it's not all good. We just can't always have nice things, can we?
First change: The name. They've given up on the "Unreal Tournament 2007" name. The game is now "Unreal Tournament 3". Why 3? I . . don't have a good reason for that. It's the fourth game (99, 2003, 2004, 2007. That's four, right guys?), but it gets a big 3 slapped on it. The only remotely logical explanation I can think of is that they're syncing up the game name with the engine name. UT 2007 has always been slated to be on the brand spanking new Unreal 3 engine, which some big companies have recently decided to license for next-gen (current-gen?) games. The engine is a big deal for Epic & friends, because not only is it a great engine, and they should certainly like to see it get used in as many games as possible, but licensing the engine brings in quite a large volume of cash. So being able to easily say "OK DEVELOPERS, SEE THIS GAME? UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3? IT USES THIS ENGINE: UNREAL 3. OK. LICENSE IT NOW." That's slightly less confusing than "UT 2007 uses the Unreal 3 engine".
Second change: Ports. Previously UT3 was slated to be PC & PS3-only. It seemed somewhat weird that Epic, super hefty big Xbox 360 devs, now with a super mega ultra best-seller Gears of War under their belts, wouldn't be bringing their latest engine and flagship game to the 360. It's not weird anymore because it's now going to be coming to the 360 as well as the previously announced PC and PS3.
And, finally, because we can't have nice things: Delays. UT 3 was formerly slated to be out in Q2-ish 2007. Not anymore. Now they're shooting for the second half of 2007. If we're lucky. At least they didn't say "Oh, it's no longer UT 2007, so we're no longer obligated to release it this year. Later, nerds."
IGN has details here, and a new trailer here. It's not really anything of consequence, but the new trailer seems to back up what we've seen already, that there's going to be a slightly more heavy single player element, based around this new war with wacky aliens.
Oh well, again, it's not like we don't already have enough things coming earlier this year. Supreme Commander, Bioshock, and Mass Effect are all still on-track.
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