Under the agreement, the Unreal catalog will be available through Metaboli and Gamesplanet in Europe and GameTap in the U.S. on a subscription basis and for full purchase. The library includes Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor’s Choice Edition, and Unreal Tournament 3 Black. Unreal Tournament 3 Black is the fully updated version of UT3 that includes the massive Titan Pack title update and downloadable content.

Furthermore, these electronic software distribution (ESD) offerings will be completely free of digital rights management (DRM) software – which means there will be no unnecessary inconveniences in the name of piracy protection for end users.

“This is the very first time Unreal Tournament 3 has been available for subscription, and we’re pleased to increase the availability of the Unreal series through this partnership with Metaboli,” said Jay Wilbur, vice president of Epic. “Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for players to access our content, and we hope to better serve the Unreal community through this arrangement.”

“We are more than proud to be able to provide to our customers the famous multiplayer-focused first-person shooter series started off in 1998,” declares Pierre Forest, VP Content of Metaboli. “In our experience, these are exactly the kind of games suitable for subscription as people are playing them again and again, month after month, thanks to the tremendous variety of maps and modes of play.”

The Unreal series will be marketed under the Metaboli, Gamesplanet and Gametap brands with support from Metaboli’s extensive partner network, whose members include Orange, BT, MSN, Game and Saturn in Europe with more soon to be announced for the U.S.