While attending Midway's recent Gamers Day event in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit down with Epic associate producer Tanya Jessen and discuss a number of assorted topics.

Want to know if the upcoming Xbox 360 edition of Unreal Tournament 3 will include mod support? The possibility of an Epic game on XBLA or PSN? The studio's thoughts on complaints that the lead characters from Gears of War and UT3 look alike? Read more »

Developer Epic Games has confirmed that the Xbox 360 edition of Unreal Tournament 3 will arrive this summer with exclusive content, though it will lack the support for user-created mods found in other iterations.

"Quite simply, we aren't doing [mods] for the Xbox 360 version," associate producer Tanya Jessen informed Shacknews. "Xbox is a closed platform. That's the big reason we're not doing it on 360." Read more »

Direct from the Midway Gamers Day comes a metric ton of screenshots and artwork from many of its upcoming titles, including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3, X360), the Xbox 360 version of Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3, This Is Vegas (PC, PS3, X360) and more.

If available, more information can be found by clicking on a game's name. Be sure to click through for the complete list, as the full breadth of content is far too meaty to fit in a single front page post. Read more »

Developer Epic Games has revealed the details on its latest $1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest, which challenges its participants to create a mod for the PC edition of Epic's Unreal Tournament 3 using the Unreal Engine 3 toolset.

Sponsored this time around by hardware manufacturer Intel, the contest offers over $1 million in prizes, with the grand prize being an Unreal Engine 3 license. Other prizes include Intel software development products and Velocity Micro PCs. Read more »

Epic sends along an Unreal Tournament 3 bonus pack, adding three maps to the PC version of their multiplayer shooter. The 160MB download includes Unreal Tournament 3 versions of the classic UT maps Morbias and Facing Worlds, as well as an all-new Capture the Flag map titled Searchlight.

A PlayStation 3 edition of the map pack will be available as a PlayStation Store download later today.

Midway has revealed that Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3 (PC, PS3) and Midway Chicago's Stranglehold (PC, PS3, X360) have sold over a million copies worldwide.

The milestone was announced by Midway CEO David Zucker in a recent conference call. Sales milestones for both titles account for copies sold across multiple territories on several platforms.

Zelnick noted that while it may seem as though the PC gaming market is slowing, international PC sales continues to be strong in a number of markets. Read more »

Epic Games has released the Unreal Tournament 3 version 1.2 patch, which includes gameplay, interface, AI and map changes, fixes and updates. New Linux dedicated server files are available as well, as is a webadmin package.

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As expected, Epic has released the toolset that allows Unreal Tournament 3 PC mods to be converted for use with the PlayStation 3 edition of the game.

Weighing in at a paltry 2.24 MB, the PC-based tools are available over at FileShack and require the installation of the first UT3 PC patch. Read more »

The update to the PC Unreal Tournament 3 editor that will enable modders to convert their user-created content to be compatible with the PlayStation 3 edition of the game is expected to arrive next week.

Though the functionality has not been released to the general public, it has been operational since late December. At that time, developer Epic converted and released a number of user-produced maps and game modes for use with the PS3 version of UT3. Read more »

The first user-created content for the PlayStation 3 version of Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3 has been released--but users still can't freely create their own. As reported, the tools to create PS3 content are still unavailable. Hobbyist designer Thomas "Setheran" Browett this week released a small deathmatch map named Spire (FileShack: PS3/PC) for PC. Epic then took the map and exported it to PS3 itself.

The good news is that Epic is almost ready to release the editor to the public. "We're waiting on some paperwork from Sony that will allow us to release an editor update so mod creators can do this cook process for themselves," Rein wrote in a forum post. "We expect to have that very soon." Read more »

When November industry sales data was released this week by tracking firm NPD, the PC platform was notably absent from the list of top ten best-selling games despite the release of high-profile titles such as Epic Games' Unreal Tournament III and Crytek's Crysis. Now, according to NPD data released by market tracking site the simExchange, it seems both games kicked off with disappointing initial sales--neither approached 100,000 units.

The report shows Crysis as selling 86,633 units at retail since its November 13 release; the game's potential audience has no doubt been limited by the game's notoriously steep system requirements. Meanwhile, Unreal Tournament III saw considerably flatter sales, tallying 33,995 since its November 19 release. Prior to the release of this data, many gamers had predicted low sales based on the game's sparse player count; at the time of writing, its current online player count is actually below the single-player-oriented Crysis. Read more »

Developer Epic Games isn't quite ready to make user-created content available for the PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament 3--but that functionality is coming "ASAP," according to Epic's Josh Adams in a post on the game's official forums.

"The PS3 mod tools aren't quite ready yet. We are working through some final legal/release issues," Adams explained. "When it's ready, you will need to download the latest PC patch and another PS3 Mod Tools 'patch' that adds the full PS3 mod support to the PC version." PS3 UT3 mods must be created with the PC version of the game, and can then be exported to PS3 format and transfered on a flash card or USB drive. Read more »

Despite its strong PC heritage, Unreal Tournament 3 has become one of the more anticipated games in the PlayStation 3's holiday lineup, due to its vaguely exclusive status (the Xbox 360 version won't be out until some time next year, and may not feature user mod support like the PS3 version does). I loaded the retail PS3 version, which releases tomorrow, for some quick impressions of its control options and general feel.

Everything looks up to the standards of a high-end PC. This might be of importance to behind-the-times PC gamers looking for a way to run the game with nice visuals and a solid framerate. Read more »

The first Unreal Tournament 3 patch has been released, updating Epic's recently released multiplayer shooter to version 1.1. A 234mb download, the patch offers community requested changes to the user interface along with tweaks and fixes for general gameplay, AI, networking and more.

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The Unreal Man: Mark Rein Speaks is a Gamasutra interview with the Epic Games VP about Unreal Engine 3, PlayStation 3, Japanese developers working with Epic's technology, PC development and more.