Epic Games turning off online services for older games; Unreal 1 & 2, UT GOTY, UT2K4 delisted (off Steam Dec 14, off GOG Dec 23)

UPDATE (Dec 20th 2PM UTC) from GOG:

We’d like to inform you that due to the publisher’s decision, Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition, Unreal 2: The Awakening Special Edition, Unreal Tournament GOTY, and Unreal Gold will be delisted from our catalog on December 23rd (Friday), 2 PM UTC.

For everyone who purchased any of the games prior to delisting, they will remain in their GOG library.

  • For any OzBargain gamers who have not yet purchased any of these Unreal franchise games, they may want to consider purchasing them from GOG before Saturday December 24th 1:00AM AEDT.

Original Dec 14th announcement from Epic Games

Epic Games has delisted most of the Unreal game franchise, several Rock Band titles and other games, from the Steam storefront on the same day as posting their announcement: "Epic is turning off online services and servers for some older games":

December 14, 2022

Starting today, we will begin turning off out-of-date online services and servers for many older games in the Epic family as we move to solely support Epic Online Services with its unified friends system, voice chat features, parental controls, and parental verification features. Most titles will be playable offline, while some will no longer be playable. We apologize to the players affected by these changes.

The following titles will have all online services disabled on January 24, after which players can continue playing single or local multiplayer modes offline:

  • 1000 Tiny Claws
  • Dance Central 1-3
  • Note: Dance Central VR online multiplayer will remain available
  • Green Day: Rock Band
  • Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
  • Rock Band 1-3
  • Note: Rock Band 4 online multiplayer will remain available
  • The Beatles: Rock Band
  • Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
  • Unreal Gold
  • Unreal II: The Awakening
  • Unreal Tournament 2003
  • Unreal Tournament 2004
  • Unreal Tournament 3
  • Note: We have plans to bring back online features via Epic Online Services in the future.
  • Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition

We have started removing games that were still available from all digital storefronts and are disabling any in-game DLC purchasing as of today. We also removed the Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star from storefronts today, as well as the mobile title DropMix. Players who already own these titles will still be able to play.

Battle Breakers will shut down and no longer be accessible to players on December 30. We will automatically refund players for any in-game purchases made via Epic direct payment 180 days prior to today. Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, Rock Band Companion app and SingSpace will be shut down and no longer accessible to players on January 24.

Thank you to all of the players and communities who have enjoyed these titles over the years.

  • At time of writing this (Dec 15th 2022), the sole remaining digital storefront that is still currently offering several of the affected games (Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: GOTY, Unreal Tournament 2004), is GOG.com - however, these games are currently at their full retail price, the most recent promo sale was in November 2022.
  • It is unclear as to how long these GOG listings of the Unreal franchise games will remain, given the very abrupt delisting of the Unreal games from the Steam storefront.
  • For any OzBargain gamers who have not yet purchased any of these Unreal franchise games, they may want to consider purchasing them from GOG soon.

Related Stores

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Comments

  • +5

    I’m actually legitimately surprised these games even had online services still in 2022…

    • +3

      Fair comment - although I'm not personally familiar with any of the non-Unreal franchise games on that list on how relatively old they are, or how popular their respective online services/servers were … I am not upset at Epic's sunsetting of online services for the Unreal franchise games:

      Its the abrupt delisting of the games and their related DLCs (without much by way of advance notice / grace period) on one or more digital storefronts, that is of more a concern to those gamers who hadn't gotten around to purchasing these older games, and now have very limited choices going forward.

  • +1

    I have "Unreal Tournament GOTY" in GOG library

    • Same here - especially in light of today's GOG announcement that Unreal Tournament GOTY (along with Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, and Unreal Tournament 2004 will be delisted from GOG.com storefront on Christmas Eve.

      All GOG users who have purchased/redeemed any/all of these titles in their GOG account library prior to Dec 24th 1:00AM, can be assured of retaining them.

  • wtf people played Unreal Tournament 2003 in 2022.
    that got old really fast in like 2003

  • The last time I got upset with this stuff happening was Age of Empires Online. It is now very commonplace, especially with gacha games failing every few years.

  • that unreal tournament kid must be raging like mad

  • Just as I and other gamers have feared, Epic has requested GOG.com (the sole remaining digital distributor of the older Unreal franchise games) to have them delisted as well:

    UPDATE (Dec 20th 2PM UTC) from GOG:

    We’d like to inform you that due to the publisher’s decision, Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition, Unreal 2: The Awakening Special Edition, Unreal Tournament GOTY, and Unreal Gold will be delisted from our catalog on December 23rd (Friday), 2 PM UTC.

    For everyone who purchased any of the games prior to delisting, they will remain in their GOG library.

    For any OzBargain gamers who have not yet purchased any of these Unreal franchise games, they may want to consider purchasing them from GOG soon, before Saturday December 24th 1:00AM AEDT.
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