BREAKING NEWS: Mythic Ultima Rerelease Site Leaked (May 31, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
EA Mythic briefly--and apparently accidentally--lowered the cloaking device on their plans for the Ultima IP this afternoon. Revealed was a new web site (see below, screenshot courtesy of Magnus!) called Ultimaforever.com which promises it will be "looking back at over 30 years of Ultima heritage!" The site also offered a curiously not-DOSBox-bundled download of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, helping to explain why EA became eager to shutter illegal downloads of that game several months ago.

This is likely part of the promotion for a rumored Ultima IV-derived social game which may also be called Ultima Forever. We can only hope similar plans are in the works for Origin's other great IPs. Mythic's Creative Director Paul Barnett did go public with his hopes of a Wing Commander I rerelease last year and we helped put together a DOSBox launcher for the game--but there has been no word since that time. Alas, there has been no word at all on plans for relaunching Cybermage.


They knew where we were going, and when... They knew exactly where to strike... I have every reason to suspect you have a leaky ship, Captain. - Admiral Sir Geoffrey Tolwyn​

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Original update published on May 31, 2011
 
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First of all, great job on breaking this story & thanks Magnus for the screenshot!

Assuming that this is EA supported, I'm not sure what to make of this. Maybe it was pulled because it was not yet ready or needed editing? The text seems rushed:

  • "Stretching across dozens of games" There are 14 boxed games shown. I realize that there are other Ultima games but are there dozens? I consider dozens to mean at least 2 dozen or 24.
  • "offered a story-driven quest based on ethical dilemmas presented to the player in an attempt to acheive enlightenment" Maybe in Britannia it isn't "i before e"
  • "you will need to install a version of DOSbox" I think the B is capitalized.
 
Wow, call me gobsmacked over this but whats a "Ultima IV-derived social game"? Is that like a MMO or is it something like one of those Facebook games? (I've found the DragonAge 2 FB game strangely addictive.)
 
Maybe they'll finish & release Prowler! ;-)

A new Crusader would be cool too!

But a new Wing Commander would be best of all!
 
I'll say...

100% chance of a new Ultima being announced soon.
90% chance that it is a Facebook game and not a AAA title.
80% chance that the GOG announcement will be Origin and include the Ultima series.
60% chance of seeing digital distribution Wing Commander.
 
You know, a successful Ultima 4 on Facebook would be pretty awesome. That would be a lot of new people being introduced to the franchise. Though I wonder if the Facebook version would be a remake with at least somewhat competitive graphics to say Farmville or if it would just be a port of the original game.
 
I think it has potential--but the sleazy Facebook economy aspect bugs me (Facebook games are all built around needing to buy tokens to play more/better/faster).
 
Well, there are two kinds of Facebook games. Games that are Farmville and games that aren't.

It isn't Farmville.
 
I think it has potential--but the sleazy Facebook economy aspect bugs me (Facebook games are all built around needing to buy tokens to play more/better/faster).

This is exactly what bugs me about facebook games. Beyond the obvious tetris clone style games anything the purports to have any depth to the gameplay eventually forces players to either coerce their friends to join or to spend money to progress. They'll often offer the illusion of being able to play without either of those limitations but it's never actually the case. You will always hit a wall where it's either a chore and a bore... I certainly don't want or need my friends seeing that i wasted real money on a pointless non-game just so I can have a better farm/fair/frontier/city/restaurant that them. Pathetic. I'd rather spend money on something that has a real challenge and point to the gameplay.
 
Agreed!

Then Privateer for Facebook launched and we all sold our houses to buy the guns for our Centurions.
 
Uh oh, I hope it doesn't turn out where you have to use real money to buy spells for your spell book. I regularly play games with a collect-them-all mentality. In the U5 remake Lazarus, I maxed out (at much as possible for their class) everybody's spell books with every spell possible (excluding the rare ones).
 
I hate to say it, but I bet it will be something like that. I would love some massive U4-style game just for the sake of the game... but that seems to be the one way they monetize Facebook games.

... and I am the same way, so I am completely doomed when Wing Commander ends up here. I'll be buying the $500 credit packs like water.
 
I hate to say it, but I bet it will be something like that. I would love some massive U4-style game just for the sake of the game... but that seems to be the one way they monetize Facebook games.

... and I am the same way, so I am completely doomed when Wing Commander ends up here. I'll be buying the $500 credit packs like water.

Water is not important!
That Laser-gun is important! It saves LIVES!
 
That laser gun is at least useful. From what I heard, spells in Ultima are pretty useless except for healing/curing spells and maybe trap spells. Actually the Lazarus team and Archon did an excellent job of making the spells fairly useful beyond the just a select few.
 
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