Unreal Tournament 2003
The Unreal franchise goes all FIFA on us
Epic engine programmer Tim Sweeney has confirmed that the forthcoming slew of Unreal games could be undergoing name changes, apparently in an attempt to "reduce the confusion we've created by having several Unreal games in development". So it's goodbye Unreal Tournament 2 and hello Unreal Tournament 2003. Yes, that's much clearer. Especially as it's going to be released in mid 2002. Obviously this opens the way for EA Sports style annual updates, although Tim insisted that this "is just another concept we've been debating internally". Meanwhile rumours earlier in the week that Unreal 2 was going to be renamed Unreal Episode 2 (another great improvement in clarity, I'm sure you'll agree) have been partially confirmed, with Tim saying that Epic, Infogrames and developer Legend have been discussing the idea. "Some of the guys love it and some of the guys hate it", he added. Whether or not they manage to push through the name changes, Infogrames have snapped up a whole host of relevant web domains for Unreal Episodes two through six and Unreal Tournament 2003 right up to 2010. Either the company is just covering all its bases to be safe, or they're planning to milk this franchise thoroughly for the next decade or two. So .. that's Unreal Episode II, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Championship and Unreal Warfare currently in development at various companies. And at least three of those are due out this year, including the one labelled 2003. Are you confused yet? Related Feature - Unreal 2 goes solo