Epic Games Finally Working on a PC Exclusive Game

By Kevin Parrish
published

Is Epic making a return to the Unreal franchise?

This past weekend at PAX East, Epic Games creative lead Cliff Bleszinski and president Mike Capps revealed during a panel discussion that the studio is currently working on a PC exclusive. Capps actually teased the audience by using the word "might," but Bleszinski later clarified that Epic is indeed working on the unnamed title.

However after the panel, Capps verified with Joystiq that development is definitely underway, and so far the plan is to keep it a PC platform exclusive. Typically "PC exclusive" points to casual and/or social gaming, but perhaps Epic is finally heading home after making the console sector its primary (bread winner) focus for almost an entire decade.

Unfortunately, little else is known about the project. The last shooter stemming from the studio was Bulletstorm, but that was actually developed by People Can Fly which Epic purchased back in 2007. The subsidiary originally crashed the PC gaming scene with Painkiller back in 2004, published by DreamCatcher and inspired by the likes of DOOM and Quake.

So what was the last real PC exclusive produced by Epic? Unreal and the Return to Na Pali expansion pack? Nope. Even Unreal Tournament initially started out on the PC, but was eventually ported over to consoles. It seems that Unreal Tournament 2004 is listed as one of the last desktop exclusives, published by Atari and landing on the PC, Linux and Mac OS X.

Does this mean Epic may return to the Unreal universe? It would be nice to have a third installment developed internally given that Unreal 2: The Awakening (2003), developed by Legend Entertainment, received average-ranking reviews (75.49-percent). The original Unreal is a classic despite some of the multiplayer issues it experienced after launching in the late 1990s.

Kevin Parrish
36 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tomfreak
    Hopefully can beat BF3, modded crysis 1 graphics.
    Reply
  • giovanni86
    If they return to the PC i really want another UT. Although i will say Unreal 2: the awakening was pretty amazing at the time when i first played it. It took my PC almost a decade just to load into the menu, but it was breath taking. Hope whatever comes its something that will really stick to being an exclusive and really hope its a true sequel if it is UT like the original UT99
    Reply
  • mrpijey
    I sure don't want an another braindead multiplayer fragfest like Unreal Tournament, I'd like a new Unreal with a compelling story and updated graphics. Enough with the social multiplayer junk, the absolute maximum I can go with multiplayer is co-op.
    Reply
  • alidan
    till Cliff Bleszinski is either fired, or leaves, i wont touch epic games games (im seperateing studio form engine).

    i dont like him, mike is tollarable, when ever he talked about about piracy, he just said it changed the buissness model, and it did.

    cliff is quoted saying to an effect anyone who builds a pc pirates and eff them, they don't get my games.
    Reply
  • alidan
    mrpijeyI sure don't want an another braindead multiplayer fragfest like Unreal Tournament, I'd like a new Unreal with a compelling story and updated graphics. Enough with the social multiplayer junk, the absolute maximum I can go with multiplayer is co-op.
    i would love a mindless and highly skill based cqb unreal like game, thats my favorite multiplayer style game
    Reply
  • Darkerson
    Yeah, Cliffy B is an arrogant prick. He pretty much talks out his ass ALL the time. Every time I see him being quoted somewhere, I tend to get a violent twitch.
    At any rate, I would like to see a new Unreal Tournament. I played the hell out of the 1st one and UT2K4 and I still fire them up from time to time just for a nostalgic kick. I was sad that the last one sort of bombed. Anyway, Im curious to see what they have planned, as long as its not like Gears of War...
    Reply
  • Swolern
    OMFG give us "Samaritan" graphics!!! Make my 680SLI rig beg for mercy!
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Hopefully we can replace the joke, "But...can it run Crysis?" with "But...can it run ?"

    Anyone else tired of crap console ports?
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    I don't want a "PC exclusive". I just want them to develop for PC first and foremost!
    Reply
  • Parsian
    PC only could also mean, Free 2 Play!. I hope, they are not talking about F2P.
    Reply