9 Months And Still No UT3 Linux Client

It's been exactly nine months (or 274 days) since Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC was released. It was also exactly one year when we confirmed that UT3 would be released for Linux via a posting by Epic's VP, Mark Rein.

However, last November when it was time for this much-anticipated first person shooter to be released, the Linux demo was MIA and the UT3 Linux server was promised in time for the game's release. Unreal Tournament 3 was then released and there was no demo, no Linux client, and no Linux server binary. The Linux server was finally released in the middle of December with no word on an accompanying Linux client. Five months had passed and there was still no word on the UT3 Linux client. Epic Games was closing threads about Linux in their forums.

Finally, last month Epic's Jeff Morris had dropped by the Phoronix Forums and stated that the UT3 Linux client is still in development. All that Epic's Mark Rein had to say then was that "it is still in the works."

Recently, Epic's Jeff "WarTourist" Morris has stopped by the Phoronix Forums. He had shared that "the UT3 linux client most definitely is progressing, albeit a lot slower than we anticipated. We don't discuss the status of patches until we know they're ready to be released." In a later post, Jeff added "I think it's likely that when we're getting close, we'll release it to the UT3 Servers and Mods mailing lists for semi-open public testing." While that message makes it sound like the client may actually be close to release, then signaling the UT3 Linux client isn't too close was another message that said "When we're close to release I'll be sure to drop everyone here a line."

Ryan Gordon is the one that's supposed to be responsible for porting Unreal Tournament 3 to Linux. Ryan hasn't updated his blog or provided any other status update. The last we heard from Gordon was:

middleware...

...so did you figure out what got removed from ut3 yet?

--ryan.

Well, it's been nine months now since the release and the Linux client for Unreal Tournament 3 is still missing in action. There isn't even a demo of the game or any beta copies. Shall we hope for a Linux release by the game's one-year anniversary? There are certainly many outraged gamers.