Ultima Online 2 Back On Track In EA Blunder
EA gift company back to Lord British, two years later
Well not quite. We have uncovered some interesting facts that no one else - especially Electronic Arts - had noticed, that could see Ultima Online creator and founder of Origin, Richard Garriott (Lord British) effectively regaining his old company two years after selling out to EA.
Castle-dwelling industry character Garriott was in fine form at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Jose. This stemmed from Electronic Arts cancelling the sequel to his most famous title, Ultima Online, and making 85 of his former colleagues and “best friends” redundant. Doesn’t add up does it?
When Electronic Arts bought Austin-based Origin from Garriott, a ‘non-compete’ agreement was drawn up stating that Garriott could not develop and release any games that would compete directly with the work of Electronic Arts’ new acquisition, Ultima Online, and the Origin team. Included in this agreement was a non-solicit clause meaning that the infamous Lord British was forbidden from poaching Electronic Arts staff.
Last week EA announced that it would be cancelling Ultima Online 2, a game being wholly created by former Origin employees, in favour of continuing the ongoing development of the original Ultima Online and shifting the company’s online focus to family-orientated Internet gaming, with the acquisition of Pogo.com.
This initially caused outrage amongst the development team of Ultima Online 2. GameSpy reported former members of staff as saying “They capitulated. They gave up. There's a fundamental misunderstanding among EA top executives about what would make a successful massively multiplayer game in terms of bringing in revenue long-term. They went for the short term gain at a very extreme long-term cost."
Then everyone did the math. Especially Garriott. He said at the GDC “its very sad to see the company that I founded and shepherded for 20 years to basically be coming to a close as an era, so that's kind of sad. And also to see all of my friends... I've got 85 of my best friends that just got laid off. On the other hand, personally, it could be an opportunity in the sense that my non-compete runs out here in about 8 days, and I was debating how to hire a team to get back into the business and I know a lot of the best people, a lot of my best friends who were at Origin, were very committed to their team and to their project and to the leadership around them within that company. Of course there was a non-solicit clause in my non-compete, so it would have been difficult for me to build a team. Well, suddenly now its not so difficult, so its going to be interesting for me to go back to Austin and start up discussions with the large stable of close friends who are now looking for something to do, right about the time that I'm looking for something to do, so that should be fun."
Oops! This means that EA has effectively paid Garriott to take a two year holiday, at the end of which he is handed a company that has been beavering away, at EA’s expense, on a direct competitor to Ultima Online. One former Origin and EA coder said, “The code for combat was done. Magic was done. Banking was done. Secure trading was done. The interface was completely re-written. We had a completely playable game that needed a huge balance pass but was certainly achievable.”
It’s now looking a safe bet that Garriott will be setting up Origin 2 and releasing Not Ultima Online 2 with record-breaking development times.
Castle-dwelling industry character Garriott was in fine form at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Jose. This stemmed from Electronic Arts cancelling the sequel to his most famous title, Ultima Online, and making 85 of his former colleagues and “best friends” redundant. Doesn’t add up does it?
When Electronic Arts bought Austin-based Origin from Garriott, a ‘non-compete’ agreement was drawn up stating that Garriott could not develop and release any games that would compete directly with the work of Electronic Arts’ new acquisition, Ultima Online, and the Origin team. Included in this agreement was a non-solicit clause meaning that the infamous Lord British was forbidden from poaching Electronic Arts staff.
Last week EA announced that it would be cancelling Ultima Online 2, a game being wholly created by former Origin employees, in favour of continuing the ongoing development of the original Ultima Online and shifting the company’s online focus to family-orientated Internet gaming, with the acquisition of Pogo.com.
This initially caused outrage amongst the development team of Ultima Online 2. GameSpy reported former members of staff as saying “They capitulated. They gave up. There's a fundamental misunderstanding among EA top executives about what would make a successful massively multiplayer game in terms of bringing in revenue long-term. They went for the short term gain at a very extreme long-term cost."
Then everyone did the math. Especially Garriott. He said at the GDC “its very sad to see the company that I founded and shepherded for 20 years to basically be coming to a close as an era, so that's kind of sad. And also to see all of my friends... I've got 85 of my best friends that just got laid off. On the other hand, personally, it could be an opportunity in the sense that my non-compete runs out here in about 8 days, and I was debating how to hire a team to get back into the business and I know a lot of the best people, a lot of my best friends who were at Origin, were very committed to their team and to their project and to the leadership around them within that company. Of course there was a non-solicit clause in my non-compete, so it would have been difficult for me to build a team. Well, suddenly now its not so difficult, so its going to be interesting for me to go back to Austin and start up discussions with the large stable of close friends who are now looking for something to do, right about the time that I'm looking for something to do, so that should be fun."
Oops! This means that EA has effectively paid Garriott to take a two year holiday, at the end of which he is handed a company that has been beavering away, at EA’s expense, on a direct competitor to Ultima Online. One former Origin and EA coder said, “The code for combat was done. Magic was done. Banking was done. Secure trading was done. The interface was completely re-written. We had a completely playable game that needed a huge balance pass but was certainly achievable.”
It’s now looking a safe bet that Garriott will be setting up Origin 2 and releasing Not Ultima Online 2 with record-breaking development times.
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