Well, it looks like EA has finally decided that the historical importance of Ultima Online outweighs it's desire to utterly destroy all the companies it purchases.
I especially liked this quote from some EA exec who wished to remain anonymous.
"We decided that we just didn't like the average UO player, but there was this one guy that used to ask us for spare change when we played golf, I have no idea how he got onto the greens, but somehow we got into a discussion about all things UO while we were pointing out the fact that no one carries spare change anymore, and he told us he had been playing UO for thirteen years - apparently one of the volunteers at the soup kitchen he frequented would let him play on her laptop.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer, he just seemed like such a nice guy, and his happiness seemed so dependent on the continuation of UO, that we decided not to fire all the UO developers and close down the servers, and instead worked out this deal with Blizzard. There was also a verbal agreement that they would relocate to Fairfax, and send over a consultant to help teach us how to get gamers and small rodents not to think we were complete ***holes..."
Here's a link to the press release.
I especially liked this quote from some EA exec who wished to remain anonymous.
"We decided that we just didn't like the average UO player, but there was this one guy that used to ask us for spare change when we played golf, I have no idea how he got onto the greens, but somehow we got into a discussion about all things UO while we were pointing out the fact that no one carries spare change anymore, and he told us he had been playing UO for thirteen years - apparently one of the volunteers at the soup kitchen he frequented would let him play on her laptop.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer, he just seemed like such a nice guy, and his happiness seemed so dependent on the continuation of UO, that we decided not to fire all the UO developers and close down the servers, and instead worked out this deal with Blizzard. There was also a verbal agreement that they would relocate to Fairfax, and send over a consultant to help teach us how to get gamers and small rodents not to think we were complete ***holes..."
Here's a link to the press release.
