You're probably joking, and in 15 years I have NEVER (not even once) cried doom for this game that just won't die; but I also think EA knows the only way to minimize a PR black eye would be to send the game off with a respectable bang. In case you're not out there in other games and if you don't keep up with the gaming press, you might not realize just how unforgettable this game is. Gaming magazine writers who haven't subscribed in years still reminisce and still compare RPGs to UO, sparking long debates in comments and forums. People would be sorely upset at EA if they heard UO was closing, and that's not something that can be said about most old games.
So, the above is as close as I've ever come to saying "doom".
But what if it's quite the opposite? The Guardian represents as many possibilities for an "end game" as it does threats. The Avatar won't be around to fight the Guardian's schemes, so might it be us who would travel to Pagan? If the Guardian's introduction doesn't herald the end of the game, it might still herald one last big expansion. EA has clearly expressed interest in growing the storied franchise. Just for the record, I wouldn't put much stock in this scenario, but who knows?
Of course, there's a little "doom" potential here, too. Historically speaking (and as backward as this sounds), there's another reason why people have speculated big publishers will sometimes dump one last truckload of money on a studio for an aging game: because they expect it to close regardless. Two or three years later, when subscriptions and item sales still haven't produced profitable targets, the fans and the studio can't really blame the publisher with hard data. As wasteful as that seems, it may be the smallest price and cleanest way for EA to extricate itself from publishing duties. It keeps the publisher clear and on target in the books and with their board of directors and shareholders: "The studio or property performed poorly (
not for lack of everyone's effort) and was shut down."
The bright side is, such an extrication doesn't actually fit in line with EA's renewed interest in the franchise, unless they want to replace UO with a sequel. (Granted, that interest seems minimal compared to some of the other IPs in its stable, but it's still there.) So maybe an endgame for UO represents an "Ascension" of some kind, either for Ultima Online itself or an actual successor to the MMORPG. There are a million and one ways to speculate on that, but we can at least be sure that the reasons EA pulled the plug on past UO sequels wouldn't be a concern today. (They were concerned that a sequel would cannibalize UO's healthy subscriber base.)
The most likely scenario in my opinion? None of the above. It takes so few resources to run and maintain UO compared to other MMOs, they could keep the game on life support forever. There is already tons of things for players to do in UO and there always would be.
Personally, I think UO is more likely to close when
developers lose interest, not EA. If there comes a day when the studio or publisher can't find devs who would be interested in working on a 16 year-old game (or 20, or 25, or 30...), then EA will be forced to close the game at that point. So if you really love UO, maybe you should learn to program or design graphics.
.
or maybe that's what the machines want you to think...
