Epic has ended Master Server Support for all Unreal Tournament Titles - How to play Online

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Now imagine the next step...Mark Rein goes for US president candidacy while wearing a hat:
MAKE UNREAL TOURNAMENT GREAT AGAIN!

[Terraniux]

Admin, or moderators, could you make this thread a global announcement please?

[darkbarrage99]

Admin, or moderators, could you make this thread a global announcement please?

Yeah, I was gonna say, I updated the original post with links and explanations, I think it would be a good idea to pin this thread.


I like how they worded it "older games in the Epic family" as if they're euthanizing their grandparents.

[UnrealGGecko]

oh **** I just now saw the list again they shutting down the Rocket League prequel on PS3 too! D:

Put it as global for now. think I can only place 2 threads there atm, but we do plan on putting a basic how-to thread either there or somewhere else highly visible, from how to get the game now to the essiantials needed to play online

[Eternity]

Already used in v469c.
Default.ini:

Code: Select all

ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master.openspy.net MasterServerPort=27900

Code: Select all

ListFactories[4]=UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=master.openspy.net,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,GameName=ut

I have just checked the default ini from the final v469c release for Windows, these items both are there... Previously i was checking only the one for Linux (64bit) - no uplink nor browser have it there.

---

Automatically merged

It seems, v469c final release for Linux 64bit contains wrong Default.ini file.

[TheGoldenMeme]

Well...

What a way to show some love and respect for the entire Unreal community amidst the coming of the Holiday season, Epic! Thanks a lot...

As far as I'm aware, the only other popular online marketplace to buy the franchise now would be GOG.com, but I dunno how long that'll last.

[Red_Fist]

NEXT ?,,,you are not allowed to make maps.

I despise the whole Steam thing so bad you just don't know and yet everyone fell into it defending it in the name of pirating, can't even download the Halflife 80 meg patch when I had a 56k modem, but I found it, I still have that patch, I suppose that is illegal too, all because of Steam, I resent having to pay for a game like in GOG type of thing, won't do it, should be free lets us figure out how to make it run. I never bought a game from Steam, and never will, I want the damn disk.

Checkers and chess, you must pay to get all the game pieces, it's so old they don't support it, so you have to pay for it.

I suppose people can run a home server, or is that illegal too.

Well I do give them credit though after 22 years is pretty damn good.
Plus I think it will be hard to stop people along with great people helping the server list.
I just miss Loathsomes server the most.

[Diablo]

oh **** I just now saw the list again they shutting down the Rocket League prequel on PS3 too! D:

Put it as global for now. think I can only place 2 threads there atm, but we do plan on putting a basic how-to thread either there or somewhere else highly visible, from how to get the game now to the essiantials needed to play online

They might as well just call themselves The Fortnite Company. They don't deserve to be 'Epic Games' anymore, cuz there aren't any.

[darksonny]

translation of this report about these closings (with deepl):
https://www.msn.com/es-es/entretenimien ... b46289e77c

The news that Epic Games' Unreal games are shutting down is very sad. But it's even sadder what this means for the series.
Last Wednesday I was writing the news that Epic Games plans to shut down the servers for a multitude of titles they own, including several games in the Unreal series. As a fan of the series, it came as a bit of a shock.

In 2014, Epic released Unreal Tournament, popularly known as "Unreal Tournament 4" by fans. The idea was that it would be a PC-exclusive title where the community itself would choose the direction to take by creating a lot of custom content in the form of maps, mods and so on. In 2018 Epic announced that it was discontinuing support for this project indefinitely in the face of Fortnite's growing success. And now, in 2022, Epic announces that the project is cancelled altogether, and was removed without notice from the Epic Games Store. Putting all the facts on the table, it doesn't seem unreasonable to say that Fortnite has killed the Unreal saga. And this has several readings.

epic games unreal tournament closing servers opinion review
Unreal Tournament (2014) | Epic Games
The first is that Epic Games seems to care little about its legacy. They are willing to unceremoniously bury the titles that launched them to stardom. It's not for nothing that the Unreal Engine is named after Unreal, the first game in the eponymous series.

Dave Oshry of New Blood Interactive tweeted - half jokingly, half seriously, I understand - the following when the news broke: "rename the engine to Fortnite Engine, you cowards". And I couldn't agree with this more.

In all fairness, plans have been revealed to bring back Unreal Tournament 3 as a free-to-play rebranded Unreal Tournament 3 X. But it's not enough; the most recent full title in the series is also the worst rated on Metacritic. With a more than respectable 83 out of 100, yes, but far from the 93 out of 100 that Unreal Tournament 2004 got back in the day.

epic games unreal tournament closing servers opinion review
Unreal Tournament 3 is the worst rated of the Unreal Tournament sub-series on Metacritic
You only have to read the comments from many users on Twitter on the Unreal Tournament account post to see that the dissatisfaction is widespread. Not only is multiplayer being removed from the Unreal games, but, to add salt to the wound, there are plans to rescue the most recent release, yes, but also the worst. And although this is a different matter, I'll mention that the fact that UT3 was also released on consoles (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) affected the final version very negatively, with announced features such as destruction of the scenarios that were never added.

I understand the reasoning behind ending the service on games that are 20 years old and whose player community is miniscule today: to eliminate "superfluous" expenses. Or rather, I could understand it in a much more modest company, but it is incomprehensible that these closures are intended as a cost-cutting measure in a company valued at $31.5 billion in April 2022. There is plenty of money not only to keep the servers open, but to be able to develop new releases and give them more than decent support. What there may not be is the will.

There is money [...] What maybe there isn't is the will.

And it's even more incomprehensible to see that even at the gates of 2023 there is still no trace of the Unreal series games in the Epic Games Store. The only way to acquire them legally today is on GOG, as the games were removed from Steam without warning.

They say comparisons are odious, yes, but let's take a look at Valve and Steam: their shop was born as a kind of annoying application that you had to install on your PC to play Half-Life 2. Or to put it another way: their own games have been on their digital marketplace since its launch. Epic Games, on the other hand, has not taken the same care to look after one of its most emblematic sagas.

epic games unreal tournament server shutdown opinion review
Unreal Tournament (2014) | Epic Games
In short: Epic Games is making it difficult to play some of its own games, and this only fuels the debate of preservation and physical versus digital games. If the game development companies themselves are not able to keep their own games alive, who is responsible?
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And they think with this patch (leaving alive only ut3 but rename as X and still without any idea about what changes will they do on that game, i hope they get rid of those gow aesthetics and blurring image very hard to see and play... ) players will stay happy, I doubt highly

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Unreal Tournament X already exists, it was the codename for Unreal Championship while in developement, similar to how Unreal Tournament Avaris became UT2005 and then UChampionship2.

There was also Unreal Tournament: Assault but that never saw the day and actually incorporated some stuff from the cancelled original Dark Sector.

Also, it was like a bridging game between ut and ut2kx stuff, brought back the same skaarj that came back in ut2004.

The game was meant to be a Playstation 2 exclusive though (don't ask).

And yes I did try to have some assets recovered but nothing but few GUI screenshots got out and rest is lost/burried.

[BloodyMess]

I've been playing UT99 since 1999. There were long periods of time I played this game 50-100 hours per week. I've played this game for so long like many of us. This game means so much to me, the community, the players and all those who keep it alive. I think it's incredibly selfish of Epic to close down the master server when it's minuscule amounts of work and resources to run it.

Please join me and dawn your professionalism to write Epic digitally over email and physically through a hand written letter to tell them what this game means to you and to keep the master server online.

-Yes I do realize most people and servers should not be effected if they have updated versions of UT with the backup master server. But not everyone will be so lucky.



*Edit*

I have just finished carefully crafting a handwritten letter to Epic and attached a picture of myself with UT in the background for a personal touch. It's in the mail on it's way to

Epic Games, Inc.
620 Crossroads Blvd
Cary, NC 27518

[Dennis]

Looking objectively at this situation one question pops in my mind - ut99.org - where does it stand in this given situation? I am sorry if people will get offended by this comment but it is in no way ment to be offending. Have in mind that I have not been part of the online "debate" scene of this game for much time. Looking at the administrating team - Dr.Flay-MetalFist-papercoffee-Shade & UnrealGGecko, I ask as I do not know these people in person and have not been a part of the ut world they have been part of (it is big so many players not meeting all other players). My thoughts are if or not this very forum is in some way connected to EPIC Megagames and can be in risk of seeing the same fate as the classic games : shut down? Is it the time now to open a fan only place or is there nothing to be worried about with ut99.org? I ask because it is ESSENTIAL that when EPIC push the close button we MUST have one go-to place where every corner of the remaining community can meet and work together for solutions to keep the game going for many years to come.

I hope people will read this question as a legit question and do not see it as controversive!

[UnrealWarrior]

I've been playing UT99 since 1999. There were long periods of time I played this game 50-100 hours per week. I've played this game for so long like many of us. This game means so much to me, the community, the players and all those who keep it alive. I think it's incredibly selfish of Epic to close down the master server when it's minuscule amounts of work and resources to run it.

Please join me and dawn your professionalism to write Epic digitally over email and physically through a hand written letter to tell them what this game means to you and to keep the master server online.

-Yes I do realize most people and servers should not be effected if they have updated versions of UT with the backup master server. But not everyone will be so lucky.



*Edit*

I have just finished carefully crafting a handwritten letter to Epic and attached a picture of myself with UT in the background for a personal touch. It's in the mail on it's way to

Epic Games, Inc.
620 Crossroads Blvd
Cary, NC 27518

Dear Mr.Sweeney,

You're gay. If you wanna un-gay yourself. Leave the servers running.

Yours truly,
A player.

Jokes aside. I hope they'd listen to us. But I feel they're distancing themselves from the Unreal franchise.
OR they're planning to make something with it.

[papercoffee]

Looking objectively at this situation one question pops in my mind - ut99.org - where does it stand in this given situation? I am sorry if people will get offended by this comment but it is in no way ment to be offending. Have in mind that I have not been part of the online "debate" scene of this game for much time. Looking at the administrating team - Dr.Flay-MetalFist-papercoffee-Shade & UnrealGGecko, I ask as I do not know these people in person and have not been a part of the ut world they have been part of (it is big so many players not meeting all other players). My thoughts are if or not this very forum is in some way connected to EPIC Megagames and can be in risk of seeing the same fate as the classic games : shut down? Is it the time now to open a fan only place or is there nothing to be worried about with ut99.org? I ask because it is ESSENTIAL that when EPIC push the close button we MUST have one go-to place where every corner of the remaining community can meet and work together for solutions to keep the game going for many years to come.

I hope people will read this question as a legit question and do not see it as controversive!

UT99.org is owned by Shade not Epic.
Epic has no say here. We just kept the ethical bar high to buy the game as long as it is still buyable.

If GOG also pulls the plug as well, the only option to buy this game would be a rare copy from ebay ...which wouldn't be really an option.
Stand by.

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Automatically merged

Dear Mr.Sweeney,

You're gay. If you wanna un-gay yourself. Leave the servers running.

Yours truly,
A player.

Jokes aside. I hope they'd listen to us. But I feel they're distancing themselves from the Unreal franchise.
OR they're planning to make something with it.

That's not funny ...we are better than using a sexual orientation as a slur.

[TankBeef]

Ok, I also have some questions:
1-Will websites for mods, maps, skins, etc...still be allowed?
2-Will work on the 469 patch still be allowed? Will it be halted?

And this one may not be answerable, but:
3-How much longer will UT be playable under future operating systems? Other games from the same era do not work with Windows 10 for example, and some require really awful tinkering.