Will it or won't it
Online support for the European release of Unreal Tournament Dreamcast?
French publishing behemoth Infogrames looked set to deal European gamers a disappointment with the release of Unreal Tournament on the Dreamcast. While the American version of the game (which has already been available for some time now) supports online play through the console's 56k modem, players on this side of the pond were apparently going to have to make do with 2-4 player split-screen action when the game is finally released over here. According to an unnamed source at Infogrames who was quoted on GameSpot UK earlier this week, "Unreal Tournament on Dreamcast will no longer have online multiplayer capabilities".
Last night the plot thickened, with a news post on the official Unreal Tournament website assuring players that "the US version [our emphasis] of Unreal Tournament Dreamcast DOES have online play", and that "you can blast away up to 8 players online through SegaNet or any other ISP". It notably did not say the same for the soon-to-be-released European version of the game, and the local Unreal Tournament website which was launched yesterday only refers to the recently released PlayStation 2 port.
However, today we spoke to Lee Kirton from the PR department at Infogrames' UK offices, and he told us that as far as he knew the European version of the game would still include the online support found in the American release. If we hear anything more we will be sure to let you know, but for the moment it appears that the earlier rumours may have been just that - rumours.