Unreal Tournament Has Been Neglected, Epic Games Admits

Epic Games is getting ready to debut its blockbuster Gears of War 3 title in September, but this doesn't mean that it's forgotten about its ubiquitous Unreal Tournament series, as President Mike Capps has talked about the popular franchise recently.

Epic Games is currently most famous for the Gears of War series, as well as for bold experiments like Infinity Blade on the iPhone, Shadow Complex on Xbox Live Arcade, or Bulletstorm, which appeared earlier this year.

Without a doubt the most profitable venture, however, is the licensing of the popular Unreal Engine, which is being used by a variety of games these days.

However, the engine is the only thing keeping the Unreal name in the spotlight, as what was once Epic's biggest series, Unreal Tournament, is now just an empty shell, after the lackluster Unreal Tournament III released back in 2007, for the PS3 or PC, and 2008, for the Xbox 360.

Epic is the first to admit that the series has been neglected, with its President, Mike Capps, sharing his thoughts with Industry Gamers.

"We have a couple other major franchises that we've not been paying attention to. It's been a long time since we shipped an Unreal game, and it's an awfully loved franchise that we hold pretty dear here. We haven't been giving it the attention it deserves because we've been focusing on Gears of War and we're still a relatively small company," Capps said.

The Epic executive even joked that the Unreal Engine is what keeps the series going. "At some point you wonder why we don't rename the engine the Gears Engine or something."

The series might make a return, and soon, as the Epic boss says that the company has innovated with new properties, and it's time to return to the older franchises and see where it can take them.

"We've been sort of focused on making new properties, which you've seen with Shadow Complex, Bulletstorm and Infinity Blade, but sometimes I think just as a businessman that maybe we should be spending some more time with our existing franchises," he concluded.

Epic Games must first work hard to finish Gears of War 3 and get it ready for release in September, only for the Xbox 360.