Epic Games to Shut Down Servers for Unreal Tournament, Rock Band Games

If you’re a fan of Unreal Tournament(Opens in a new window) or Rock Band, we have bad news: Epic Games is shutting down the online servers for games across both franchises. In addition, the company is removing the titles from all digital stores, including Steam, while disabling their in-game DLC purchases.

Epic Games made the announcement(Opens in a new window) on Wednesday, calling the servers “out-of-date online services.” Instead, the company wants to focus on supporting Epic Online Services, which currently powers the popular shooter Fortnite through voice chat features and parental controls. 

The company is pulling the plug on the servers on Jan. 24. Fortunately, most of the affected titles will remain playable offline in single-player or local multiplayer modes. These games include: 

• 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

But other titles won’t be so lucky. Once Jan. 24 arrives, Unreal Tournament Alpha, which first released in 2014, will no longer be playable, along with Rock Band Blitz, Rock Band Companion app, and SingSpace. That said, Epic Games points out the online multiplayer for Rock Band 4 and Dance Central VR will remain available. 

The news is certainly disappointing for fans of the Unreal Tournament franchise, which became particular popular among PC gamers in 2000 with the release of Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition. Thankfully, the games still remain available to buy from GOG.com(Opens in a new window), for now. 

Epic Games also plans on reviving the online servers for Unreal Tournament 3 through Epic Online Services. The company has already updated the title on Steam with a new name, Unreal Tournament 3 X(Opens in a new window), which will feature crossplay between Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG.

In the meantime, Epic Games is also shutting down the 2019 game Battle Breakers. This will occur on Dec. 30, but the company plans on refunding players for “any in-game purchases made via Epic direct payment over the past 180 days.”

On Wednesday, the company also removed the Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star from digital storefronts. PC versions are still available on Steam.