Ultima's next steps

When we recently heard that Andy Hollis had joined EA's Origin studio in Austin, Texas, as chief operating officer and executive producer, we had to wonder if the Austin studio would turn back the clock to the heady days of the Wing Commander series, Privateer, and Strike Commander and do a new combat flight sim. That's because Hollis has a long résumé that includes design and programming credits on MicroProse's F-19 Stealth Fighter and F-15 Strike Fighter games. And more recently, he was executive producer on the Electronic Arts' own Jane's combat sims. But no, after a two-year retirement that let him devote time to race driving, Hollis is returning to EA not to get directly involved with new game development, but rather to guide the Origin development staff working on the long-running Ultima series.

We haven't heard much about Origin's plans since the release of the most recent Ultima Online expansion, Age of Shadows, earlier this year, so we jumped at the chance to talk to Andy Hollis and Anthony Castoro, a producer for Ultima Online who himself returned to EA late last year after serving as the lead systems designer on Star Wars Galaxies. The news is that Age of Shadows has been quite successful and has helped propel Ultima Online to having its best year and its highest number of subscribers (more than 250,000) ever. Origin attributes this success to the expansion's extended character customization options and to the general stability and far-reaching community support that the game enjoys as a result of its five-year history.

The main focus for the Ultima Online team is a new, shorter cycle for making free updates to the game. Updates including features and fixes are now scheduled for every month and a half to be more reactive to the player community and introduce more content to the game on a regular basis. Speaking of content, there's a new series of in-game events coming soon. Castoro hinted that upcoming live events may feature appearances from the major characters in the Ultima fiction, including Lord British and Blackthorn. The focus on the current game service for the rest of the year means that there aren't any specific plans for a new expansion pack yet. Additionally, in contrast to earlier plans for a sequel adopting a different gameplay approach, Ultima Online's renewed success means that the studio is committed to building on the game, and there's currently no motivation to replace it.

While the focus of the conversation was on Ultima Online, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask about other Ultima projects. Asking about the Ultima game that's been rumored to be in development since the appearance of a leaked "Ultima X: Odyssey" title screen image, we received a unison response of "No comment." Hollis reiterated that Origin isn't going to work on anything that competes with Ultima Online. Yet other comments hinted that other teams are working at Origin, in addition to the 15 to 20 people dedicated to Ultima Online.

Origin's message is one of renewed optimism, and the studio believes that no one should count Ultima Online out of the competitive online market just because it was the first major massively multiplayer online game. In addition to the effort that's going into keeping the game fresh for long-term subscribers, there are continuing efforts to entice new players to the game. The Age of Shadows expansion demystified some elements of the game for new players, and Origin has even introduced a service that lets players buy an advanced character for $30 to give them a quick start or allow them to catch up with higher-level friends. To be sure, we'll hear more from Origin in the coming months.