Epic is making a new, free Unreal Tournament to promote its new developer tools

The word “free” didn’t mean what it used to. These days, in gaming, free typically comes along with the option to purchase in-game items. The new Unreal Tournament is not that kind of free.

Today, Epic Game announced its plan for a new entry in its classic Unreal Tournament first-person-shooter franchise, and the company is going for something a little bit different. The developer revealed that it will start making the game today — as in right now — with a small group of Unreal Tournament veterans. Along the way, the studio is inviting fans as well as developers who use the company’s new Unreal Engine 4 development kit to weigh in on every design choice in the shooter. Once the game is in a playable state, Epic will give it away for free — no microtransactions. The new Unreal Tournament will work on PC, Mac, and Linux.