Epic Games has announced that it will begin turning off out-of-date online services and servers for many older games in the Epic family as the company moves to solely support Epic Online Services, a newer platform that supports a unified friends system, voice chat features, parental controls, and other modern benefits.
Most titles will be playable offline, while some will no longer be playable at all, Epic admitted before going on to apologize to players who are affected by the changes.
Here are the titles that will have all online services disabled on January 24, although players can continue playing their single or local multiplayer modes offline:
- 1000 Tiny Claws
- Dance Central 1-3
- Note: Dance Central VR online multiplayer will remain available
- Green Day: Rock Band
- Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
- Rock Band 1-3
- Note: Rock Band 4 online multiplayer will remain available
- 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
- Note: We have plans to bring back online features via Epic Online Services in the future.
- Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition
“We have started removing games that were still available from all digital storefronts and are disabling any in-game DLC purchasing as of today,” Epic Games said in its announcement. “We also removed the Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star from storefronts today, as well as the mobile title DropMix. Players who already own these titles will still be able to play.”
Battle Breakers will shut down and will no longer be accessible to players on December 30, while Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band Companion app, and SingSpace will be shut down and no longer accessible on January 24.
“We will automatically refund players for any in-game purchases made via Epic direct payment 180 days prior to today,” Epic Games added in regard to Battle Breakers, a free-to-play title that has been described by Epic as “an awesome, new RPG,” built as a passion project.