Epic Games Does Suppress Linux Talk

Last week we shared the sad reality about Unreal Tournament 3 that it's been 5 months and there's still no Linux client. There's not even any sign that the game client will still be made available for Linux once their "legal" problems are resolved. It was mentioned in the news posting that forum moderators for Epic Games, the company behind the Unreal franchise, had been deleting posts of users who had inquired about the status of this game for Linux. There is now confirmation that they are taking such actions to suppress the UT3 Linux talk.

Mentioned in the Phoronix Forums are links to screenshots showing a thread asking about the game's Linux status being removed. In addition, yours truly had tried asking for information in the Epic Forums as well.

In a kind message left on the forums (the thread, unless it gets removed) I had simply asked for a Linux status update whether it be big or small. My user-name and signature were rather identifying and not inconspicuous. Six others had then chimed in by replying to this post and agreeing that they would like to hear from Epic Games on whether they will be releasing a Linux client or just jerking its customers around.

Finally then, an administrator (Flak) for the Unreal Tournament forums had replied. His reply was solely a link to an UT3 FAQ thread. This thread was created in November before the game was even released in North America and prior to the UT3 Linux "legal" problems becoming known. The only mention of Linux on this FAQ thread was "We are currently working on a linux UT3 client that players will be able to use with the retail Windows version. As soon as it's available we'll announce it here."

Lastly, this administrator then locked this Linux thread to prevent any further communication, even though that FAQ thread didn't answer my original question of providing an updated status. When is it going to come? The same year that's the "year of the Linux desktop"?

What gives, Epic Games? For Linux gamers out there, if you're fed up in waiting you may want to check out Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. This id Software title was released in early October and just two weeks after its release was the ET:QW Linux client and even the ET:QW Linux demo. id Software has also been providing updates to this game that coincide with the Windows ET:QW updates. On the free software side, there are great games such as Nexuiz.