Re: The Rise and Fall of Unreal Tournament - YouTube video by GVMERS

On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 11:10:02 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 9/22/2024 10:01 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

In
fact, the thing I took away most from the video was a reminder of the
part they didn't even say: for undisclosed reasons, Epic pulled the
original Unreal games from all storefronts, so there's no legitimate
way to purchase new copies of the classic games anymore.
 

The rarer and more difficult to acquire something is the more valuable
it is!  So if it is impossible to acquire it must be infinitely valuable
on the company's books!

Honestly, that's as good a reason as any I've heard for why Epic
removing Unreal/Unreal Tournament from storefronts. I mean, I can
totally understand if they choose not to keep developing the
franchise; there might be an argument that the cost of producing a new
game -- either the stand-alone singleplayer Unreal games or the
multiplayer Tournament editions -- wouldn't be a cost effective use of
their resources

    [still, probably more cost effective than Epic Game
     Store, amirite? ;-)]

                  but pulling the old games entirely? That's just
leaving money on the table. It's not just the sale of the games
themselves; it's the free advertising you get from people
nostaligically playing these ancient titles. And when PC gamers are
already up your ass (whether for 'abandoning' them for years, or EGS
exclusives, or whatever) you'd think you'd want to further avoid
cratering your reputation by hiding the few good things they remember
about you.

It just seems really weird behavior. Epic has never given any reasons
for it either.

Maybe they're doing a Disney and putting the games "in the Vault" to
be released for a limited time once every twenty years or something.