trouble at ut3 land

Errors by design?

from Stardock Forums

Unreal Tournament 3 is a blast to play.  I dont care that it got mixed reviews and a less than stellar welcome by UT players across the world.  Unfortunately, many stupid decisions on Epic's side with the release and the game itself set it up for failiure.  Many people complained of glitches in the demo when it was released, glitches that took a little time for Epic to submit patches correcting them.  Notable complaints when the game was released were about it's "dumbed-down" made-for-consoles UI, which to UT fans, some of the most technically savvy computer users took as a kick in the stomach.  To them, Epic which made UT what it is today thanks to its hardcore pc enthusiasts, was now telling them to take a hike, favoring next-gen consoles and the juicy deals that come along with them.  One very noticeable example of this was their initial announcement of a native Linux client that was supposed to be shipped shortly after the game was released.  It's almost 10 months now, and the FAQ section where it states that hasnt changed since it was published shortly after UT3's release.  A few spokespersons from Epic kindly appeared to public debates, where conspiracies of deals with the publisher of one of their titles, Microsoft, as the reason of the apparent cancellation of the Linux client were brewing, stating that work was still being done on the client.  A quick statement, completely off the record, with no possible accountability.  A 2 week delay of the windows client o a AAA game title would be unacceptable, a 10 month delay would be simply disastrous.  Every previous UT game had a native Linux client shipped with it either on the DVD case, or available for download shorty after it was released.  The Linux gaming community wonders about the delay, their interest in ut3 waning with each passing day. 

Many of these mistakes can be corrected easily by Epic, it only takes the will to do it.  However, if the main reason why their latest UT title is the way it is not because of erroneous decisions, but by "design", the design of console gaming, their problems are indeed bigger.  They might be getting a whole new audience of console gaming players, but at the expense of alienating their dedicated player base, the ones that upgrade their computers to play their games.

82,671 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

It'll never be updated IMO, from a business standpoint they most likely have washed their hands of this product already.

If you check the stats www.gamespy.com/stats you'll see that there is a very small amount of people that play the game online. In fact the game regularly falls off the list with less than 100 players online playing most the time. Since this is primarily an online game, it can only be reasoned that sales were extremely low and then there is no compelling  reason to spend anymore resources on this in the hopes of increasing sales.

I hope they manage to fix all these issues and have a new release, like UT2K4, someday in the future.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Is it fesable to say pirates are running a huge amount of multiplyer servers and therefore piracy is a possilbity of the low sales?


I don't think so myself but maybe, still such a result proves to me that the 'piracy' storys talked about by Crytek and the like are just covering themsevles for investors ("no don't worry mr shareholder, we are investing in DRM to combat the piracy!").
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Is it fesable to say pirates are running a huge amount of multiplyer servers and therefore piracy is a possilbity of the low sales?I don't think so myself but maybe, still such a result proves to me that the 'piracy' storys talked about by Crytek and the like are just covering themsevles for investors ("no don't worry mr shareholder, we are investing in DRM to combat the piracy!").


Is it feasible to even think that? Hacked servers were running in UT 99 and UT 2004 (ala by Private Server Patches), so why continue to blame piracy? Why not blame the company once and while?

In previous UT's, you had plenty of options, UT3 removed most of them and changed UI to boot, infact I hear it's impossible to change the menu's to a custom one (i.e. Mod it), although I haven't seen the latest progress on that though.

So why blame piracy? I've seen many crap games as of late (Startrek legacy for one).

There is still dedicated modders of course though.
Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top
One of the biggest problems was making that stupid single player campaign that took an extra YEAR.

If it was released a year earlier, PC only with a server browser and UI half as good as UT2004's then it would of sold better than it has on PC, PS3, and Xbox360 combined.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Strange, UT3 was well-received by the gaming press. The PC version averages at 84% on GameRankings.

Over a million units of the game have been sold, more than half of those on PC's. 1.2 was released in Feb this year.

I have to say, I really don't understand what the original poster is on about. Pretty much every point you make is either inaccurate or based on pure speculation.

Sure, the Linux delay may be down to involement from Microsoft. But to say the game has been abandoned and unsupported is frankly balls. A 240mg patch does not constitute no support. Increasing the max players to 64 in a patch does not constitute no support.

It's been a reasonably successful game, but gaming has moved on from the days of dominance by FPS titles in the multiplayer arena. MMO's are out there now, and much of the player-base which used to make up the majority of FPS fans are now playing them. It doesn't mean FPS games aren't being played online anymore, just look at BF2, but it does mean that players do now have more options in what they play online. The days of it just being UT, Quake 3 and a few RTS titles or Diablo are gone. Pretty much every big title nowadays has a significant online element to it and as such the classic titles no longer have the draw they once had, and the player-base is now very much spread around a larger variety of titles.

I mean, who has time to run and gun on UT3 when there's pointless and repetitive raiding and honour grinding to be done?  ;) 
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I bought UT3, when I installed it I realised I didn't really want to play a arena FPS anymore (after OFP, Planetside and other amazing games). So I played the 'single player campaign' which was HORRIBLE. I loved the single player 'ladders' from UT1/2 but this time the AI was so rubbish, the game so... OLD it is one of the very very few games that I never 'finshed'.

I really don't know why I bought UT3, I guess simply because I bought all the other games. I loved Gears of War however yet Epic says "pc gamers don't want to play Gears of War?" Eh?

We don't want to play 4 year old games that havn't changed in any important way.


One trend I've seen with these big PC games is the slow starting sales which grow to pretty good. Of course nothing on PC will compete with 5 million or so from console... apart from WoW and Sims... and well yeah.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Very good insightful points raised here, I would say epic was probably too busy polishing up Gears of War for microsoft to actually make a good follow up to ut2k4.  The fact that it got high reviews and a cold reception from the gaming audience reflects the complete disconnect between the "media authorities" and what gamers want.  Or probably more time was spent on the unreal engine 3 technology rather than on the game itself.  The mistake came back to bite them where it hurt, in the bottomline.  And i agree, piracy is the gaming industry's favorite scapegoat.  OTOH,  MSU contest has been launched already, hopefully more than a few groups of talented modders will be able to make something "unreal" with unreal tournamet 3, or, pardon the pun, actually make it "unreal".  Pity that the linux crowd wont be likely to participate, given they've been left out in the cold.

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top
It is such a shame that UT3 went down the tubes. It is shameful to think that these game designers are turning into Hollywood scum, and some that even go as far to parade around like their celebrities, more concerned with profits than their fans. My message to today's game designers and publishers, if your so concerned with profits go work on Wall Street. I even include those who loose their costomers in Digital Rights Management Garbage.
Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top
I never played the previous UT games and it is a nice game, but I think this was more an engine demonstration of UT3 engine. As you can read on their website they seem to make mainly money with licensing the engine.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I never played the previous UT games and it is a nice game, but I think this was more an engine demonstration of UT3 engine. As you can read on their website they seem to make mainly money with licensing the engine.


And it seems from what ive seen to be heavily aimed at console development rather than say modding.
Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top
Yeah sure the game sold a million copies, HELL i bought it! But those websites are true, nobody plays it anymore. The only reason i really bought it was to benchmark my computer, and for mods in the future. Like the awesome looking C&C renegade Mod coming out on the ut3 engine.

Lots of people buy games but dont play them lol
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting keduoh, reply 9
It is such a shame that UT3 went down the tubes. It is shameful to think that these game designers are turning into Hollywood scum, and some that even go as far to parade around like their celebrities, more concerned with profits than their fans. My message to today's game designers and publishers, if your so concerned with profits go work on Wall Street. I even include those who loose their costomers in Digital Rights Management Garbage.

 

I was thinking to put a picture of CliffyB to go with your comments! :)  He's the media darling of the game industry. 

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting keduoh, reply 9
It is such a shame that UT3 went down the tubes. It is shameful to think that these game designers are turning into Hollywood scum, and some that even go as far to parade around like their celebrities, more concerned with profits than their fans. My message to today's game designers and publishers, if your so concerned with profits go work on Wall Street. I even include those who loose their costomers in Digital Rights Management Garbage.

 

I was thinking to put a picture of CliffyB to go with your comments! :)  He's the media darling of the game industry. 

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

In fact the game regularly falls off the list with less than 100 players online playing most the time.In previous UT's, you had plenty of options, UT3 removed  most of them and changed UI to boot, infact I hear it's  impossible to change the menu's to a custom one ,although I haven't seen the latest progress on that though.

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Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top

I bought UT3.

I played UT99 for about 7500 hours.

Ut2004 for about 3000.

 

UT3 about.. 20 hours.

 

I want my money back honestly.. It wasn't worth it.