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Epic shuts down Unreal servers, but there are still plenty of ways to play Quake

Epic Games has announced that it's closing down servers for multiple Unreal Tournament games.

Donovan Erskine

December 15, 2022 8:00 AM

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The Unreal Tournament series was instrumental in revolutionizing first-person shooters, and its influence is still present in many of today’s biggest games. The series is so iconic and beloved, that many players have continued to play the game throughout the years, despite it not receiving a proper new release since 2007. However, several Unreal Tournament games will soon be unplayable online through conventional means. Epic Games has announced it will shut down servers for the games, along with several other titles in its catalog.

Epic Games formally announced the closure of servers for Unreal Tournament games in a post on its website. On January 24, 2023, servers will close for the following Unreal Tournament games:

• Unreal II: The Awakening
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition

The company does share that it has plans to bring Unreal Tournament 3 back online in the future through its Epic Online Services. As for the other games, it looks like this is the end of the road. Unreal Tournament isn’t alone in the upcoming server closure, as Epic Games will also be taking Dance Central 1-3, Rock Band 1-3, and other games offline on the same date.

Throughout Unreal Tournament’s history, the series has long competed with and been compared to id Software’s Quake franchise. Lucky to have not suffered the same fate as Epic’s first-person shooter, the Quake series gets the latest laugh, as it’s still widely available on a plethora of platforms. This includes the Nintendo eShop, PC, PlayStation Store, and the Xbox Store. Quake Live and Quake Champions are two relatively recent entries in that series, and can still be found on Steam. Lastly, Schnapple offers a way to play Quake on iOS and tvOS devices.

It’s an unfortunate turn of events for fans of the Unreal Tournament franchise, with the thin silver lining being that Unreal Tournament 3 is due to come back online at some point in the future. There hasn’t been many updates on the Unreal Tournament franchise in recent years, but if there are, you can expect to read about them here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_