Ultima Online doing better than new MMOs

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.