Epic has announced that they are starting the development of a new Unreal Tournament game. The game will be free for the PC, Mac, and Linux users. In another first the game will be built from scratch with the aid and input from the community. Epic will be working directly with the community and using community input to direct the development of the game.

Since the game is going to be free, one has to ask how Epic is going to pay for the development of the game? Well, in another strange twist, Epic has come up with the plan that they will be selling user developed mods and extensions to the game as well as new games based on the new UT in a UT Epic marketplace, where Epic will get a cut of the sale price of the downloadable content.

It remains to be seen if this type of model can work, but we have to think that it could be one of the most innovative ideas to come along. Don’t expect to see the finish product anytime soon, as development is just starting and it is going to take some time to develop the new UT. Epic confirmed no release date, but we have to think with the community involvement and the small team of UT veterans working on the title that it still is going to take a while till it is finished for its first release.