Ultima Online doing better than new MMOs

By Oli Welsh Published 28 October, 2009

"Tons more content" to come.

The lead designer of Ultima Online has boasted that the 12-year-old game is doing better than many more modern rivals, and still has plenty of new content to come in future.

"UO... it's got a very core player base, and not a small one," Tim Cotten told Gamasutra. "Many of the new MMOs that come out never reach our current levels. We have 27-odd servers - it's still a very healthy MMO."

Ultima Online recently saw the release of biggest-ever expansion Stygian Abyss, along with a drive to recruit old players, and Cotten says the team - now housed at Warhammer Online developer Mythic - hasn't run out of ideas yet.

"If you want to go for a historical timeline, we're only around Ultima VI; we've got tons more of content left to play with," he said. The team is also working on a brand-new client for the game, currently in beta.

"It's based on the technology for Kingdom Reborn, but from the ground up, rebuilt by our engineering and design and art teams to actually be much more faithful to what the UO players actually need. And it's still in beta and it will be an ongoing beta until it is done and done right."

For more on the game that refuses to die, check out the Ultima Online gamepage.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (13) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kingmong #1 2 years ago

    I played this when it came out first as everyone was banging on about MMOs being the future of games. After a few hours of chopping wood I turned it off and uninstalled, thinking to myself "this'll never catch on"

    how right i was lol

  • swisstony #2 2 years ago

    On the one hand you keep your core when it's going to be hard work making your game look like LOTRO and Aion etc. but on the other, if it could just look a bit more like Dragon Age is going to look, sort of isometric but lavish visually, they could do a lot worse in terms of attracting people into it.
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/09 @ 11:00

  • IronCladChicken #3 2 years ago

    EA screwed them over back when EA were activision - UO2 looked pretty amazing.

  • SAMagic #4 2 years ago

    Good of the man to share actual numbers of active players.

    I'm sure there are people playing it, but is it more than a few million?

  • Hantheman #5 2 years ago

    Ahh UO. Good memories. Very influential game as well.

  • Irien #6 2 years ago

    The big difficulty (I believe) with client coding for UO is that compatibility (both in terms of assets and gameplay) needs to be maintained with users of older machines/clients. This always causes huge problems (see Everquest 1) unless the developers force a new high-spec engine onto users, and/or revamp vast swathes of existing content. Both cause certain groups of players to get upset! Add to that, my guess is that many UO players continue to play it in part due to low system requirements... Updating the game wouldn't be my first choice job!

  • Fubdub #7 2 years ago

    if it's a few million it's pretty amazing for an MMO, most struggle to reach 100k.

  • poopmonster #8 2 years ago

    When WoW came out, EQ had already taken the lion's share of UO's playerbase - I think it (UO) topped around 400k, then dropped to 200k post-EQ (who's playerbase went up to 400k...so 200k new players).

    A few years ago I heard varying estimates ranging from 40k to 200k. I'm inclined to believe the lower number is more accurate today - I certainly can't imagine it's anywhere near 1 million.
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/09 @ 12:47

  • Fightclubber #9 2 years ago

    My nan shitting into a bin is more appealing than this game

  • TheBoyChris #10 2 years ago

    Still love this game.

  • Mr_Git #11 2 years ago

    Used to play when it was Second Age. That was ages ago. Whenever someone starts playing a MMO and starts singing its praise i'll always ask whether you can own your own castle and boat. The answer's always no. Rubbish.

  • smelly #12 2 years ago

    .. Still want a new single player ultima....

  • IronCladChicken #13 2 years ago

    @smelly
    Never gonna happen man - I think Garriots experience with U9 put him off making another game.
    At least Bethesda\Oblivion can continue to nick ideas from Ultima and take credit for them 10-20 years later ;)