Epic Shelves Unreal Tournament As Fortnite Continues Dominating

Those of you looking forward to the completion of Epic's Unreal Tournament might want to temper your expectations. Epic has confirmed that the new Unreal Tournament isn't in active developement, but that much was already obvious. After all, the game hasn't been updated in more than a year at this point, so even without confirmation from Epic, fans probably already assumed this was the case.

Still, that confirmation likely stings a bit regardless. The good news is that the game will remain available in its current state, so if you enjoy playing Unreal Tournament as it is now, you'll be able to continue doing that. Just don't hold out hope for Epic to return to the project any time soon.

Speaking with Variety, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said that Unreal Tournament is indeed on hold for the time being. Fortnite, to the surprise of no one, is the reason for this move – it's grown so popular that Epic has focused many of its resources on growing it further and turning it into a lasting success. That, unfortunately, means less attention is paid to Epic's other projects while Fortnite reigns as one of the most popular games we've seen in a long time.

Even though the game has been put on hold, it hasn't been canceled outright. That means there's always a chance that Epic returns to it eventually, but the probability of that happening soon seems pretty slim. Just yesterday, Epic announced that it's going to open up its own game store, packing more onto its already full plate.

It's hard to imagine Epic having time for other projects aside from its store and Fortnite anytime soon. Furthermore, it's unlikely that the company would refocus its efforts on a more traditional multiplayer FPS when battle royale seems to be taking over the world with Fortnite leading the charge. We'll keep an eye out for any additional information, but this is probably the last we'll hear about Unreal Tournament for some time.