The Future Of UT3 On Linux Appears Uncertain

While there are great open-source games like Nexuiz and XreaL, a title many Linux gamers have been waiting years for has been Unreal Tournament 3. Prior to the game launching, a Linux client was confirmed and that famed developer/porter Ryan Gordon was porting the UT3 engine.

When the game launched, the Linux client was missing in action and even the Linux server build. The UT3 Linux server was released a month late with little explanation but the Linux client continued to be non-existent. Epic Games had also been suppressing Linux talk on their forums. Nearly a year after the game first shipped for Windows, Ryan providing a screenshot of UT3 Linux but not anymore information. There still was no release on the one year anniversary. Linux gamers continued to wait in the dark.

A year and a half after Unreal Tournament 3 began shipping in the United States, Ryan Gordon finally provided a bit more information. Last month he stated that UT3 Linux was still undergoing work and there was no ETA on when it would be released. He said though he was working on "optimizing and fixing annoying bugs at the moment."

Well, to try to find out the status, we went directly to Epic Games. Asking Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, about the Unreal Tournament 3 Linux client status, he said, "That's a great question! I'm not sure of the Linux status, so let me pass this on to Unreal Tournament 3 designer Steve Polge, who will be delighted to answer your question." We just heard back from Mr. Polge and the news isn't too promising.

Slow progress continues on the Linux client (as well as the Mac client). This work is being done by an external contractor, as we don't have available internal resources with the right expertise. We certainly would love to see this completed, but given the amount of time it has taken, we aren't confident about when that might happen.

So what the heck is going on? Ryan says he is fixing bugs and Epic Games is not too sure about the situation. Ryan Gordon's game development background on Linux goes back to Loki Software and has been responsible for the Linux work on earlier Unreal Tournament engines... It shouldn't take this long. There has also been a rumor that the Unreal Tournament 3 Linux client might be canned entirely due to financial cutbacks. Evidently no one is sure about the Unreal Tournament 3 Linux client, and if they do have information, they are not informing their customers.

This situation has certainly become a bloody mess and we are losing hope that the Unreal Tournament 3 client for Linux will ever be released. On top of this situation, there is a possibility that America's Army 3.0 may come to Linux, which is based upon the UT3 engine, after the Linux/Mac clients were earlier dropped.