EA making a new Ultima Online?

By Robert Purchese Published 30 March, 2011

Talkative EA bigwig Paul Barnett involved?

Question-marks - that's what hangs over EA's decision to stop people giving away Ultima IV for free; that's what hangs over BioWare-Mythic creative director Paul Barnett (formerly a Warhammer Online preacher) mentioning "secret projects"; that's what hangs over the mystery MMO an EA job posting exposed yesterday.

Are all three events linked? Is EA making a new Ultima Online?

It's a leap of faith, but why else would EA suddenly demand freeware sites stop distributing Ultima IV, a game that's been openly available to fans for years - and a game around which a enthusiastic mod scene has developed?

Tweeted Paul Barnett on 19th March: "Dr Ray just visited, he looked at the secret projects and he saw that they were good."

Projects? Plural?

Then there's yesterday's job posting for an MMO Web Architect to work on a something "huge"; something "monumental".

Years ago there was a sequel to Ultima Online, called Ultima Worlds Online: Origin. But sadly it wasn't to be; the 3D project was binned by EA in 2001.

Ultima Online, created by Richard Garriott and released in 1997, is considered to be the game that popularised MMOs. And it lives on today, albeit after countless face-lifts and game changes. Even so, Ultima Online has an audience many new MMOs would turn green at.

But how would EA recreate the je ne sais quoi of Ultima Online for today's MMO audience? There are fantasy MMOs by the dozen now; could a vaunted skill-based advancement of Ultima Online and its fondly remembered but brutal die-and-lose-all-equipment thrills translate?

How would EA handle adapting the iconic isometric graphics?

Perhaps by going free to play as a browser-based game?

Question-marks: I stroke my wizard's beard at you.

Ultima Online's 2007 revamp.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Shikasama #1 1 year ago

    I don't see how it would make sense to pour hunreds of millions into a competitor to a product you have already poured hundreds of millions into.

    SWTOR isn't even out yet.

  • riz23 #2 1 year ago

    I worked on UO back in the day, and I would say the MMO world is not ready for the PvP gankfest and arduous skill grind that epitomises and makes great, original UO. The Trammel/Felucca candyland divide is what brought UO on a steady downward spiral and that comfort zone is now an intrinsic part of modern MMO's. No likes to be a loser even though it really means something then when you become a winner.
    Any F2P UO game which this is likely to be will just be some bastardised version with UO branding stuck on. Pointless.

  • SAMagic #3 1 year ago

    If there's one thing I want in an MMO, it's a persistent world, or a series of them for players to travel between. Reading the first preview of UO in PC Gamer, back in the day, gave me extraordinary expectations - there were suggestions of whole armies of actual players fighting at the same time. Corr!

    Then there would be dynamic events, with every action having a consequence, I think the example at the time was a group of adventurers slaughtering the local wild life in an area, which caused a dragon to go hungry and proceed to eat some villagers - thus causing the mayor to offer a reward to adventurers to slay the beast.

    What do we have these days? 30 man PVP inside instanced battlegrounds and dull grinding. Some people are content with that, but I've long grown tired of it, as practically difficult as it would be to make and manage a truly persistent world. The safe money on this is very likely a F2P game, but I'd like to see the original UO remade all the same.

  • IronCladChicken #4 1 year ago

    I've been a big Ultima fan since the mid-eighties... But, after being ignored by EA for over a decade, does the brand carry that much weight anymore?

  • Zomeguy #5 1 year ago

    Even so, Ultima Online has an audience many new MMOs would turn green at.
    Lots of people are keeping multiple accounts alive out of nostalgia and to keep their houses alive, but they don't actually play anymore. Lots of shards are deserts. Now, i believe that the recent decision to not invest in a classic shard is the final nail in the game's coffin.

    The Trammel/Felucca candyland divide is what brought UO on a steady downward spiral and that comfort zone is now an intrinsic part of modern MMO's.
    That is actually not true, Trammel brought many new players and subscriptions rose significantly. What finally destroyed UO was the Age of Shadows expansion, where the game went from a skill based approach to an item based grindfest.

  • MikeP #6 1 year ago

    @SAMagic That game exists, and its name is Eve Online.

  • riz23 #7 1 year ago

    With respect Zomeguy, I still contend that the downward spiral began with the candyland divide. Subscriptions did not rise significantly during that time either. They did rise somewhat and the churn eased but it was a major moment in changing directions. By the time Age of Shadows arrived, things were dying already.

  • ChthonicEcho #8 1 year ago

    @SAMagic

    Look into Guild Wars 2.

  • charming_fox #9 1 year ago

    UO > WOW * country mile

  • Zomeguy #10 1 year ago

    @riz23:
    Look at the numbers: www.mmodata.net

    Renaissance (Trammel): May 4, 2000
    Age of Shadows: February 11, 2003

    There is currently no PvP sandbox game remotely comparable to UO 2000. Just visit one of the popular classic free shards for some nostalgia. Some have higher server populations than EA's.

  • Inmediasress #11 1 year ago

    @Shikasama

    Maybe becvause they already consider SWTOR a failure my guess of course.

  • Distributor #12 1 year ago

    No, not Barnett....noooooooo.

  • Rouge77 #13 1 year ago

    If EA would have a big secret Ultima project going on for which they would seek staff now, the game would be years from launch. There would be no need at all to close down those Ultima IV sites.

    From Barnett's - to whom I still have sympathy for after WAR - previous comments from last year we know that what remains of Mythic as part of Bioware Mythic has had two plans for future games: A Wing Commander re-make and an Ultima game for social media.

    Ultima IV -type game for Facebook or whatever could come out, let's say early next year. I think that's what we are looking at here.

    The secret MMO project is supposedly The Sims Online 2.
    Edited by Rouge77 at 31/03/11 @ 19:59