Epic playing with fire
Posted by Brian Vaughn at 11/15/2007 1:43 PM 
Categories: Sony, Xbox 360, Epic, PS3, Microsoft, Gaming, UT3, Gears of War
Categories: Sony, Xbox 360, Epic, PS3, Microsoft, Gaming, UT3, Gears of War
Most hardcore gamers know that Epic is
the company that creates the Unreal Tournament games for the PC and the
Unreal Engine. The UT games have done well on the PC and have
traditionally been team based first person shooter multiplayer games.
The PC version don't contain a campaign or story mode because the game
is known simply for having very fast multiplayer.
With this generation of consoles Epic teamed up with Microsoft to create Gears of War and that game sold like gang busters. After the release of Gears of War, Epic wanted to have free content for the game be available over Xbox Live. Microsoft, as the publisher of the game, balked and chose to sell the content for a price to help recoup cost spent marketing the game. This caused a riff between the Microsoft and Epic and now Epic has gotten friendly with Sony to ruffle Microsoft's feathers.
Epic's next game Unreal Tournament 3 will be coming to PC and PS3 well before the Xbox 360. Epic has said this is all over the fact the Sony will allow them to support user created mods on the PS3. These mods allow you to dramatically change how game is played and require players to download and install the mods to be used.
Since the Playstation Network (Sony's version of XBL) does not provide servers for their 3rd party games the publisher/developer has to provide servers for their online games. This open network means Sony doesn't have to worry about what these mods might do to the network and they don't worry about certifying the content as safe and bug free. Microsoft has a closed network because they provide the servers for their network and they require any download to go through a tough certification process.
Epic is hoping to make UT3 for the PS3 a system seller and is now saying the game will not be ported over to the Xbox 360 until the mod situation is resolved. Really what Epic is doing is trying to get Xbox 360 owners to not wait the the 360 version of the game. The install base for the PS3 is still too small for this game to have mega sales on the PS3. It will most like be dwarfed by Call of Duty 4 and possibly Haze.
I'm not sure what Epic hopes to gain by agitating Microsoft because MS owns the rights to Gears of War 2 so that will have to be a Xbox exclusive game. I think that Epic is hoping Unreal Tournament 3 will have the same success that Gears of War had but I seriously doubt that will happen. I don't think it will have 1/10th the success on the PS3 as Gears did on the 360.
With this generation of consoles Epic teamed up with Microsoft to create Gears of War and that game sold like gang busters. After the release of Gears of War, Epic wanted to have free content for the game be available over Xbox Live. Microsoft, as the publisher of the game, balked and chose to sell the content for a price to help recoup cost spent marketing the game. This caused a riff between the Microsoft and Epic and now Epic has gotten friendly with Sony to ruffle Microsoft's feathers.
Epic's next game Unreal Tournament 3 will be coming to PC and PS3 well before the Xbox 360. Epic has said this is all over the fact the Sony will allow them to support user created mods on the PS3. These mods allow you to dramatically change how game is played and require players to download and install the mods to be used.
Since the Playstation Network (Sony's version of XBL) does not provide servers for their 3rd party games the publisher/developer has to provide servers for their online games. This open network means Sony doesn't have to worry about what these mods might do to the network and they don't worry about certifying the content as safe and bug free. Microsoft has a closed network because they provide the servers for their network and they require any download to go through a tough certification process.
Epic is hoping to make UT3 for the PS3 a system seller and is now saying the game will not be ported over to the Xbox 360 until the mod situation is resolved. Really what Epic is doing is trying to get Xbox 360 owners to not wait the the 360 version of the game. The install base for the PS3 is still too small for this game to have mega sales on the PS3. It will most like be dwarfed by Call of Duty 4 and possibly Haze.
I'm not sure what Epic hopes to gain by agitating Microsoft because MS owns the rights to Gears of War 2 so that will have to be a Xbox exclusive game. I think that Epic is hoping Unreal Tournament 3 will have the same success that Gears of War had but I seriously doubt that will happen. I don't think it will have 1/10th the success on the PS3 as Gears did on the 360.
Comments