What just happened? Epic Games has announced it will begin turning off what it calls "out-of-date" online services and servers for many of its legacy games. Most titles will still be playable offline, but not all of them.

From January 24, 2023, the following games will see all of their online services disabled unless otherwise noted:

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

Epic has already started removing the impacted games from digital storefronts and disabling in-game DLC purchasing. The Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star have also been pulled, as has the mobile game DropMix. Battle Breakers will shut down on December 30, and Epic will refund any in-game purchases made within the last 180 days.

It doesn't end there, however, as Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band Companion app and SingSpace will also be shut down and inaccessible on January 24.

Epic could be working on a solution to appease disgruntled Unreal Tournament fans. A listing for Unreal Tournament 3 X has surfaced on Steam and is described as a free version of the classic first-person shooter with more than half a dozen online multiplayer modes as well as crossplay support between Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG. Curiously enough, a notice indicates the game is no longer available on the Steam store and the release date is listed as November 19, 2007 - the same day Unreal Tournament 3 was released.

Could Unreal Tournament 3 X be a remnant of the long-abandoned free Unreal Tournament game we first heard about in 2014 or is it just an updated of UT3 with crossplay?