That said, the Rock Band franchise hasn’t been relevant in roughly a decade, and an attempted reboot in 2015 went over so poorly that it bankrupted gaming peripheral purveyor Mad Catz. The Unreal Tournament games, on the other hand, still harbor small-but-passionate communities that will certainly be upset to see the cancelation of official online services for the series.
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Epic Games confirmed that, in total, 17 titles will have support for their multiplayer modes axed on January 24, 2023. In addition to the Rock Band and Unreal Tournament games, the PSP releases 1000 Tiny Claws and Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess will also see their online functionalities axed, as will the Xbox 360’s Dance Central trilogy. An interesting caveat to this is that both the still-updated Rock Band 4 and Dance Central VR will retain their multiplayer modes for the foreseeable future.
Epic Games Online Shut Down List
1000 Tiny Claws Dance Central 1 - 3 Green Day: Rock Band Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess Rock Band 1 - 3 The Beatles: Rock Band Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars Unreal Gold Unreal 2: The Awakening Unreal Tournament 2003 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Tournament 3 Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition
Online functionality for Unreal Tournament 3 is supposedly slated to return at a later date, though Epic Games didn’t provide a solid time frame. Beyond that, smaller titles like the 2017 tactical mobile game Battle Breakers and the digital-only Rock Band Blitz will be delisted entirely in addition to SingSpace and the Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend.
The loss of Psyonix’s Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is also worthy of mention; while that name may not sound familiar to most, it’s actually a prequel of sorts to what fans now know as Rocket League, which came to be under Epic Games’ umbrella when the publisher acquired Psyonix in 2019. All of these multiplayer modes are likely to be mourned by at least a few dedicated fans, and, ultimately, it’s a shame that the routine deletion of older games and services is now an industry standard.
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Source: Epic Games
