We probably should have talked more about what’s been going on with Unreal Tournament 3 over the last couple of weeks. Why didn’t we? Because it’s not a game any of us feel particularly strongly about one way or another, and from earlier comments it didn’t look like you lot did either. Having a famous name and being reasonably fun is no longer enough for a technically adept but fundamentally unambitious multiplayer shooter to grab the attention it once would have done.
Last weekend, that changed dramatically. Unreal Tournament is back, baby, back. And no matter how you or we or anyone else might personally feel about UT3, its unexpected resurgence may signal colossal change for PC games.
The popular perception is that UT3 bombed. Did it? Well, at first it certainly seemed as much – reportedly it shifted just 33,995 US copies during its first month on sale. Epic later claimed that it had shipped 1.2million copies worldwide in four months, but that includes the US PS3 release and, of course, ’shipped’ and ’sold’ are far from the same. While there was probably a good deal of exaggeration from both sides of the debate, certainly the half-decade old Unreal Tournament 2004 continued to enjoy a visibly larger regular playerbase than its higher-tech sequel.
Now, traditionally it’s the case that when a multiplayer game stumbles, it doesn’t get back up again. UT3 seemed destined to go gently into that good night, save for the occasional antagonistic comment about PC gaming from Cliffy “Cliffy B” B and Mark Rein. And yet, as we coast into the Spring of 2009, a game released in 2007 is suddenly the talk of town all over again. On the weekend before last, its players jumped by some 2000%.
The key to it all was taking a leaf out of Valve’s book. There may not be such a thing as a free lunch, but that truism doesn’t mean hungry folk won’t turn up in droves if you stick up a poster promising complimentary punch and pie. The Team Fortress 2 free weekends, many timed to coincide with major updates, drew hordes of players who were delighted to get something for nothing. Come the end of each weekend, a fair few were charmed enough to splash out for a permanent copy of the game.
Epic have done exactly that with UT3, releasing a major patch (complete with new maps and modes as well as more fundamental changes based on player feedback) then offering it free via Steam to all comers for a long weekend. Once the first free weekend was over, its 2000% extra players didn’t all disappear – the game (heavily discounted) jumped straight to the top of Steam’s bestseller list. It did so well that there’s just been another free weekend, though observers reckon that’s partially by way of apology to the people who, as a result of higher-than-anticipated interest, couldn’t download the game first time around. Who knows if it’ll truly reverse UT3’s long-term fortunes, but it’s almost definitely earned a big pile of money from a game we all thought had died in the water a year ago.
It’s an incredible precedent to set: making a game a success almost 18 months after a poor launch. It’s something that could only have happened now, and with a system like Steam. Something that can go far beyond a mere demo by delivering a complete game straight to your hard drive and automatically deactivating it at the distributor’s discretion. Something that silently updates a purchase with patches and extra content automatically, so you don’t have to make the decision to seek out some exciting new feature: it’s just there anyway. Something that, if you don’t already own it, advertises that game to you at an agreeably reduced price whenever it loads. Something that enjoys a vast community who are in turn plugged into a sea of smaller relevant communities.
It’s incredibly sinister. It’s also incredibly exciting. UT3 may never be a cult classic – or indeed any sort of classic – but it’s no longer a failure. Think about what this could mean for other, better future games in similar danger of being lost to uncaring history. There is now a mechanism to save them: if something with as negative a reputation as UT3 can come back from the dead, surely anything can. The next Planescape: Torment or Beyond Good & Evil will be less of a risk, less of a tragedy waiting to happen. It’s not Steam or Impulse specifically as much as it is game distributors finally realising how to leverage the internet, and that a game doesn’t stop existing once its initial print run disappears from store shelves. Game retail and traditional advertising alike have never seemed such dinosaurs.
I mean, really. How any other platform could possibly think it can rival PC gaming’s staggeringly vast, fast-evolving, hyper-connected community in the long-term is beyond me.
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I’ve been thinking about these “relaunches”, it seems to be a growing trend on the PC lately – not just UT3 and Witcher, but games like Burnout as well, which basically used its PC release as an excuse to relaunch on consoles as well, and Eve being back on store shelves to mark its recent big patch. It’s more than just buying extra shelf-life, it seems to be faking critical acclaim by emulating “GOTY edition” re-releases.
Although in the case of UT3 the first weekend was probably timed to coincide with Quake Live – the big hooplah over its release probably created extra interest for UT3, whether from people who prefer Unreal games cause Quake-style multiplayer is a bit too “pure” for them, or from folks who tried to get into Qlive but couldn’t because of the queues.
I am not impressed
Will nothing please Mel Gibson?
I can see how consoles could keep up better. Make a PS3 compatible STEAM and bung it in the playstation store, and have it run in the background and share friends with the XMB Friends menu. well sort of?
Had to do a quick wiki to see if Epic made any interesting games that I had missed after the first UT. Not a single one. Ohh Cliffy, what are you doing?! I remember a video interview when 2003 was released and him saying he would not play another tittle without vehicles again. Ironically 2003 only had one vehicle as an Easter egg and all the competition had plenty. They never really did that bit any well later on either.
Gears of War must be one of the most overrated games ever. I know it looks good but so does Crysis and that game sucks too. Gears is only fun in co-up and that fun lasts tops 2 hours. Then it’s just repetition of ehh shooting the same guys again and again. I can only remember 2 basic enemies. How many “special” moments in that game sticks to memory? Fountain fight(because it felt a bit fresh and it came earyl in the game), that big dinosaur (the first time) and maybe the train with it’s extremely boring boss.
Played through KillZone2 the other day. Shit it looked good at first too. Very similar to Gears, although better. It also felt very repetitive. Better end boss, to bad the other fights were to easy.
Maybe I’m just missing a better story in these games? I mean I love UT and Quake 3 because it’s perfected multiplayer were there is no need for story. Gears tries to have a singleplayer story but I don’t care for it at all and therefor I’m not sure why I fight except for thinking the other guys must be evil since they shoot at me. And if that’s it I rather play against other people for some real competition.
Stupid idea but maybe someone should try out making a singleplayer campaign were some levels go through ongoing multiplayer matches.
Shit, sorry for the ramblings off track. Gave UT3 some hours and it felt empty. They should focus more on vehicles or, even better, just kick them out. The art direction from Epic is also quite bad. To bad at they got some really talented people. Their concepts look amazing and like the games could have more dept to them.
It was a flash in the pan. The game did have a spike of players during the free weekends, but as soon as they realised they had to pay for the game it was back down to it’s rather pathetic population of 200 per night – less than a quarter of what UT2k4 enjoys.
Epic should stop trying to flog this utterly dead horse, and either make a new UT game or abandon the series and concentrate on Gears of War.
I LOVE this game! Bought it from gamestop for $18.00 in March of this year. Now I’m hooked, joined a clan & spend way too much time having fun online.