Despite receiving a couple of rather nifty updates here and there, the development of the new Unreal Tournament has never exactly been active. So given Fortnite's increasingly massive success and the relatively recent shutdown of Epic's MOBA Paragon, many were left wondering what exactly this means for the future of Unreal Tournament. Things certainly weren't looking good as Unreal Tournament hasn't been updated in about a year, but no official answer ever arrived.

Well, that last part has now finally changed, though I'm afraid the answer is not a good one. According to a brief comment Epic Games' CEO and founder Tim Sweeney gave to Variety, Epic is no longer actively working on Unreal Tournament. The reason, as you might imagine, is the increasingly large demand for additional content in Fortnite.

While I can't exactly pretend this comes as much of a surprise, it is still unfortunate to see such a mighty series simply fizzle out like this. I can only hope that a couple of years in the future, once the Fortnite train has finally reached peak speed, Epic might look back at the Unreal Tournament series and give it another try. After all, while Arena shooters might not be the most popular thing around these days, a game like Unreal Tournament 2004 with its numerous game modes and crazy weapons could definitely coexist alongside the various multiplayer games of today.

Should such a day come I'll make sure to let you know, but until then you can at least try the new Unreal Tournament for free. It is most certainly unfinished, but it's still quite a bit of fun!