Epic Games has announced that it will be sunsetting online services for various "older" games in its catalog. These include Rock Band and Unreal titles, as well as a handful of other Epic games you might remember, like Battle Breakers and Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars.
This news comes to us from the official Epic website. Epic says the main rationale behind shutting down these online services is to move towards "solely support[ing] Epic Online Services", which have benefits like a unified friend system, built-in voice chat, and parental controls. It is, after all, easier for Epic to control everything from one centralized system.
Here's a full list of all the games for which Epic is planning to stop supporting online services.
- 1000 Tiny Claws
- Dance Central 1-3
- Green Day: Rock Band
- Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
- Rock Band 1-3
- The Beatles: Rock Band
- Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
- Unreal Gold
- Unreal II: The Awakening
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition
There are a few things to bear in mind here. First, Rock Band 4 online features will still be supported, so you should still be able to buy songs for that game. In addition, Dance Central 1-3 being shut down won't affect Dance Central VR, in which you'll still be able to access online multiplayer. Finally, Epic says it has plans to reintroduce Unreal Tournament 3 online features via Epic Online Services at some point in the future.
Starting today, you can no longer purchase in-game DLC for any of the above titles either. The Mac and Linux versions of pigeon dating sim Hatoful Boyfriend have also been removed from sale, as has mobile game DropMix. You can still play these games if you've already got them, of course. You don't have to say goodbye to your pigeon husbandos yet.
Starting from January 24th, the alpha build for Unreal Tournament, as well as Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band mobile companion app, and SingSpace will all be shut down as well. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but hey; maybe some of these games will get player-run servers at some point in the future. Never say never!
As well as directing people towards its new Online Services, Epic is also continually updating its Epic Games Launcher, including with ratings and user polls to determine game quality. The company also recently introduced cabined accounts in Fortnite and its other games with a view to protecting children and improving parental controls.
