Does anyone else think it's strange what Epic are currently doing with the Unreal brand? It seemed like Epic had split Unreal into two different types, with Unreal Tournament 2003 being for the multiplayer audience, and Unreal 2 for the single player audience.. now Unreal 2 will be multiplayer, and to scatter the fanbase a bit more, there's going to be an Unreal 2004 (multiplayer) coming out soon, and Unreal 2005, 2006 etc. It seems strange to me to fracture their fanbase like this..
Digital Extremes made UT2003 (and i think they're making 2k4), so Epic don't make any games :) Just the engine (unless DE is a subs of epic). Epic would certainly be actively proposing the ut2kX games though, they aren't just sitting there waiting for some developer to say "Hey, we'd like to make ut2k4, whaddya think?".
As far as producing a UT every year, from what i've read the idea is that they will be releasing the game more often than similar types of games (ie. quake series). Instead of coming out every 2-3 years, the game will come out every year with incremental graphics upgrades, new game types, and backwards compatibility.
The idea is to *strengthen* the user base by continually releasing product. Think of the way collectible card games (and just about any RPG/Wargame) keeps it's fanbase active/alive/excited by continually releasing new product every few months. Thats what Epic is trying to do.
As far as U2 goes, apparently they always planned to do multiplayer for U2, but they left it out of the retail release to get the product out the door (presumably worried Doom3 would be released on time...the fools! :P)
CYer, Blitz
quote:Originally posted by Blitz
As far as producing a UT every year, from what i've read the idea is that they will be releasing the game more often than similar types of games (ie. quake series). Instead of coming out every 2-3 years, the game will come out every year with incremental graphics upgrades, new game types, and backwards compatibility.
The idea is to *strengthen* the user base by continually releasing product. Think of the way collectible card games (and just about any RPG/Wargame) keeps it's fanbase active/alive/excited by continually releasing new product every few months. Thats what Epic is trying to do.
Well I hope they offer each update at a reduced rate for people who already own the game. I can't see many people paying $90 each year for what is essentially the same game with extra content.
I'm guessing that Epic controls the Unreal brand - but my point isn't about who developes which Unreal game, but that I think the Unreal brand is getting too fractured, with all the different titles overlapping each other with the same type of game.. If you have Unreal 2 which has multiplayer, why would you want Unreal Tournament 2003? And there are going to be people who have UT2K3 who won't be upgrading to UT2K4.. the fanbase would be spreading even thinner on each game online, I thinks..
Well at the end of the day its all about Money, and if Epic are adding Multiplayer to Unreal 2 for the reasons that i believe it is, then it's not that strange at all.
Most of us probably heard about Unreal 2 through our experience with UT, but Epic are probably assuming that many others had bought Unreal 2 at face value, or without the knowledge of it's sister title 'Unreal Tournament'. As a result, they figured that these fresh fish probably don't even know about multiplayer either. So, being about the dollar bills, Epic decided to add multiplayer to the Single Player game that is Unreal, as a means of introducing multiplayer to the uninitiated consumer.
However ,as you mentioned, this does cause the consumer base to be 'fractured', but that would only be an issue if the fracturing caused a loss of dolo, in which case it doesn't because Epic owns both titles!
So whether you buy Unreal 2 or Unreal Tournament does not concern Epic at all, because its all money.
"Well I hope they offer each update at a reduced rate for people who already own the game. I can't see many people paying $90 each year for what is essentially the same game with extra content."
Ask the people who develop/publish/sell/buy sports titles year after year...
I do recall during the development of UT2k3 someone saying that they were designing UT2k3 to be a sports title :)
CYer, Blitz
Shonuff:
quote:Well at the end of the day its all about Money, and if Epic are adding Multiplayer to Unreal 2 for the reasons that i believe it is, then it's not that strange at all.
Naive of me but I hope thats not their only motivation for making games.
Daemin: I also wasn't impressed with Unreal 2, just seemed like an after thought to UT 2003.
I don't think adding a multiplayer component is enough of a saving grace, more like a waste of time, they should just move on and let it die.
Cam: Ah the good old days.
Blitz: they are adding more than art assets to the updates so I don't see you getting a reduced rate, also they aren't forcing consumers to buy it so its really up to the inividual to do the research as to wether or not they think its worth another $90.
Anyone else think UT2004 feels like a beefed up tribes 2? no? just me then, oh well... [:P]
Hey, I'm not the one complaining about UT2004! :)
I think it's shaping up well personally, and i'm particularly interested in it being backwards compatible with UT2k3. This is a really BIG bonus for the mod community, as it makes porting their code from ut2k3 to ut2k4 incredibly simple (and they don't even need to port it at all, they can continue to use UT2k3, and people with ut2k4 can still play on the ut2k3 mod servers!)
CYer, Blitz
It doesn't seem strange to me at all, AFAIK Epic only makes the Unreal Warfare engine and games in the Unreal Tournament brand, while outside developers use the engine to make other games. I think Raven made Unreal 2, although I will have to check that to make sure. So really Epic are making most of their bucks licencing the Unreal engine and some smaller amount of cash selling the Unreal Tournament games, beats me to what other games they're making.