UO plans for 2016/17

[James2464]

Hello everyone,

I would like to start a discussion in regards to the future plans of UO for 2016 and 2017.
A discussion for everyone but perhaps for people playing other games like myself that want to come back and re-invest time and money back into UO. I would guess there are potentially thousands of us.

1. Has the producer/management outlined any recent plans for the future of UO? Should there not be a public roadmap? What should we expect going forward long term?

2. The current gap between the latest expansion and the last is about 5 years. Should we expect this wait for the next major update?

3. When or is UO coming to Steam? Any news about the Greenlight approval?

4. Is UO likely to adopt a different business model in the future? eg. Steam, F2P.

Perhaps I'm asking silly questions... Though I do believe many out there would highly respect and appreciate a response from Rob Denton or Bonnie Armstrong or a member of Broadsword/EA at least.

Thanks,
J.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Hello everyone,

I would like to start a discussion in regards to the future plans of UO for 2016 and 2017.
A discussion for everyone but perhaps for people playing other games like myself that want to come back and re-invest time and money back into UO. I would guess there are potentially thousands of us.

1. Has the producer/management outlined any recent plans for the future of UO? Should there not be a public roadmap? What should we expect going forward long term?

2. The current gap between the latest expansion and the last is about 5 years. Should we expect this wait for the next major update?

3. When or is UO coming to Steam? Any news about the Greenlight approval?

4. Is UO likely to adopt a different business model in the future? eg. Steam, F2P.

Perhaps I'm asking silly questions... Though I do believe many out there would highly respect and appreciate a response from Rob Denton or Bonnie Armstrong or a member of Broadsword/EA at least.

Thanks,
J.

1. The developers have said that the rest of 2016 will be mainly focused on improving and expanding the last Expansion, like adding new bosses and quests to Eodon (the new area the expansion created).

2. Only a developer can answer this, but my guess would be yes considering they only have about 5 developers total. Most games that churn out expansions on a yearly basis have development teams with 30+ people.

3. UO has been Greenlighted on Steam for about a year, but for some reason has not actually been fully put on Steam. There has been no official reason for that as far as I know. Only a developer can tell us the reason for sure, and it is honestly not likely that they will.

4. Mesanna (Bonnie Armstrong) has stated within the last year or so that UO has no plans to go free to play or adopt a free to play business model.

The UO developers that post here are Kyronix, Bleak, and Mesanna. Kyronix posts here a lot, the other two not so much. Rob Denton does not ever post here.

 

[DJAd]

1. Fixing stuff that seems to break every time there is a new publish. The last publish seemed to just fix bugs the publish before that broke.

2. Soon™ (They are still fixing lots of things from the recent update).

3. Every time they are asked about this they pass the buck as say its now up to EA.

4. Doubt it.

Sorry to sound so negative but thats the way it is these days which is very sad to be honest.

 

[MalagAste]

..... cater to the Rares Community at every opportunity F the rest of you and destroy community... continue to not make revenue by making it nearly impossible for anyone to RTB or restart, find or use their old account.... keep making a new account so grossly over complicated that no one will want to wade through it... Continue to not do interviews or ads so no one will know UO is still running nearly 19 years later... continue to make items nearly impossible to get by the average player... reward all multiboxers and scripters...

Blindly add content that makes no sense and does not go with the current content... continue to make things a HUGE grind... more grinding the better...

Make sure all new art added sticks out like a sore thumb, is at least 2x too large and is completely in a different perspective than EVERYTHING else in game....

Keep ignoring the issues plaguing the EC... Stop all additions to improving the CC...

Keep changing content to benefit scripters and bots...

Continue to allow multiboxing...

business as usual...



Did I miss any???

 

[Capt. Lucky]

EA isn't promoting Steam as they have their own Origin platform they would prefer everyone to use. So I don't expect that to ever happen. I do believe Bonnie when she says it's up to EA, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

i'm hoping for a huge 20th anniversary party / meetup.

 

[Tanivar]

..... cater to the Rares Community at every opportunity F the rest of you and destroy community... continue to not make revenue by making it nearly impossible for anyone to RTB or restart, find or use their old account.... keep making a new account so grossly over complicated that no one will want to wade through it... Continue to not do interviews or ads so no one will know UO is still running nearly 19 years later... continue to make items nearly impossible to get by the average player... reward all multiboxers and scripters...

Blindly add content that makes no sense and does not go with the current content... continue to make things a HUGE grind... more grinding the better...

Make sure all new art added sticks out like a sore thumb, is at least 2x too large and is completely in a different perspective than EVERYTHING else in game....

Keep ignoring the issues plaguing the EC... Stop all additions to improving the CC...

Keep changing content to benefit scripters and bots...

Continue to allow multiboxing...

business as usual...



Did I miss any???

Doesn't sound like it.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Isn't this what the newsletters are for? They've given us the broad strokes of the short-term goals...

 

[Tina Small]

3. UO has been Greenlighted on Steam for about a year, but for some reason has not actually been fully put on Steam. There has been no official reason for that as far as I know. Only a developer can tell us the reason for sure, and it is honestly not likely that they will.

It's actually almost two years now. Both UO and DAoC were in the April 29, 2014 batch of greenlight titles: Steam Workshop :: April 29th Batch of Greenlight Titles

 

[Lord Frodo]

3. UO has been Greenlighted on Steam for about a year, but for some reason has not actually been fully put on Steam. There has been no official reason for that as far as I know. Only a developer can tell us the reason for sure, and it is honestly not likely that they will.

Steam Greenlight :: Ultima Online
This game has been Greenlit by the Community!
The community has shown their interest in this game. Valve has reached out to this developer to start moving things toward release on Steam.

Just because Steam Community Greenlit DAoC and UO does not mean EA approved it. A Greenlit is just that community asking Steam to talk to the people that own the game to make it for Steam also. Just because Steam asked doen not make it a done deal, stop misleading UO Players.

 

[BrianFreud]

Sorry Frodo, but you're wrong.

Quoting @Riyana back in July, since she summarized it well in Any update on UO coming to Steam?

The last thing I heard about it was in the video back in February:

Mesanna: Steam-- I know that's on everybody's mind. Um, we are--we have to do certain things in the game to prep for Steam, that's just have to--like a new player experience. Um, several other things that, if we just went to Steam, it wouldn't work. Uh, so we have to prep for it, and we're not gonna be doing that until the later part of this year. Whenever we have all the details, we'll let you know of course.

It's the very first thing they talk about in the video, about 10 seconds in.

 

[Scribbles]

Hello everyone,

I would like to start a discussion in regards to the future plans of UO for 2016 and 2017.
A discussion for everyone but perhaps for people playing other games like myself that want to come back and re-invest time and money back into UO. I would guess there are potentially thousands of us.

1. Has the producer/management outlined any recent plans for the future of UO? Should there not be a public roadmap? What should we expect going forward long term?

2. The current gap between the latest expansion and the last is about 5 years. Should we expect this wait for the next major update?

3. When or is UO coming to Steam? Any news about the Greenlight approval?

4. Is UO likely to adopt a different business model in the future? eg. Steam, F2P.

Perhaps I'm asking silly questions... Though I do believe many out there would highly respect and appreciate a response from Rob Denton or Bonnie Armstrong or a member of Broadsword/EA at least.

Thanks,
J.

1. Add useless content instead of fixing the game and account mngment website along with the origin store.

2. Hopefully never, they seem to break everything when they update or expand.

3. I doubt they ever build a new player experience that isnt broken right out of the box. which would be a requirement for steam.

4. unlikely since our current staffs revenue would likely change with that.

Sorry to be so negative but the current staff cant help but suck it up non stop.

 

[Smoot]

Yes, UO would need all those things if it were a healthy, fully functional game. but lets be real, its just not. theres lots of improvement that could be made to make UO extremely popular in the modern marketplace, but EA still overshadows and prevents alot of what UO could be.

They pushed the game in a direction that prevented many oldschool players from returning

They refuse to change and adapt to a modern ftp model

Anyone who thought for a second that EA would allow UO on steam was fooling themselves. EA hates steam and i dont know why it was put thru the greenlight process in the first place. EA would never allow a game it owns to be on steam.

for those not familiar with EAs history with steam:
Why does EA hate steam so much? - PC/Mac/Linux Society - GameSpot

 

[The Craftsman]

1. Offer little or no customer support
2. Ensure the account management pages remain confusing, unintuative, glitchy and unsecure
3. Make sure that any new artwork is badly drawn and does not fit in with the original art
4. Churn out a few bizzare, shoddy, bug ridden 'updates' to make the sheep think we are doing something for the game
5. Ignore cheats, scripters and dupers (as they all pay to play)
6. Milk the existing playerbase for the cash cows that they are
7. Shut down this niche dated unsupported game as soon as the EA bean counters pull the plug

 

[MalagAste]

1. Offer little or no customer support
2. Ensure the account management pages remain confusing, unintuative, glitchy and unsecure
3. Make sure that any new artwork is badly drawn and does not fit in with the original art
4. Churn out a few bizzare, shoddy, bug ridden 'updates' to make the sheep think we are doing something for the game
5. Ignore cheats, scripters and dupers (as they all pay to play)
6. Milk the existing playerbase for the cash cows that they are
7. Shut down this niche dated unsupported game as soon as the EA bean counters pull the plug

That's pretty much what I said... But yes... sounds about right.

 

[Dot_Warner]

And people think I'm hard on the devs...

 

[James2464]

Ok guys check this out... What does this tell us? The man himself:


[BCOLOR=rgb(245, 245, 255)]James2464 ‏@James2464 [/BCOLOR] 9h9 hours ago

[BCOLOR=rgb(245, 245, 255)]@RichardGarriott[/BCOLOR] Richard! We need your help with EA and UO... Can you add to this please: [BCOLOR=rgb(245, 245, 255)]http://stratics.com/threads/uo-plans-for-2016-17.368937/#post-2687475…[/BCOLOR] much love


Richard Garriott‏@RichardGarriott
@James2464 I wish I could help, but I have little influence or insights as to how they manage UO. So, come play Shroud of the Avatar!

 

[Captn Norrington]

I'm pretty impressed he actually responded!

 

[Capt. Lucky]

They're making plans? Wow.... these last few years were planned?

 

[Eärendil]

Plans for the next years? Just staying alive, would be all I wish. I would be happy if they just keep the game alive for the next years, even if they did nothing but maintenance. The game actually offers everything I need.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Plans for the next years? Just staying alive, would be all I wish. I would be happy if they just keep the game alive for the next years, even if they did nothing but maintenance. The game actually offers everything I need.

I agree. Anything added would just be the "new correct art" and any creatures would be gazillion hit point mobs with one hit kill capabilities that you have to spend your whole evening to kill. Look in the thread for favorite events, there are so many things from the past that are still so awesome, ToT, the General's town invasions, just add a bit to those, maybe a few new ToT items, rotate them out every so often (like they are sposed to be doing with the turnins...) should be easier and quicker than all new things. And then spend the time saved fixing bugs, making books work in both clients, plugging up the holes and faults in existing lands instead of creating new ones, fixing bod system and books and rewards, whatever else is overdue. Cuz, to be honest, I would not have ToL if it wasnt free, and I won't buy another if released later this year or next year. We have plenty already, we just need it fixed, and rotated in and out to keep it fresh.

 

[Uriah Heep]

And to head off the doomsayers who are gonna be goin "How can they make any $$ if there aren't new releases to sell?!?!?!"
I reply: Fix the damned store, fix the account management system, in the grand scheme of things this would bring them a lot more $$ than another expansion.

 

[Crimson Hawk Moth]

I was going to create a thief last weekend. Wondered how to skill it up. went to UOs website to see what the Official word was. They basically recommend from uo.com to stand in bucks with a bag at my feet and steel from it tell I hit max skill. Seriously WTF BS is this ? You are encouraging people to script train their skills because their is no engaging gameplay while making new characters. Yes let me stand here in bucks for 1000 hours stealing my own items from my own bag. This totally makes sense from an RP point of view, or a general point of view. Who creates this crap ???

 

[Slayvite]

I was going to create a thief last weekend. Wondered how to skill it up. went to UOs website to see what the Official word was. They basically recommend from uo.com to stand in bucks with a bag at my feet and steel from it tell I hit max skill. Seriously WTF BS is this ? You are encouraging people to script train their skills because their is no engaging gameplay while making new characters. Yes let me stand here in bucks for 1000 hours stealing my own items from my own bag. This totally makes sense from an RP point of view, or a general point of view. Who creates this crap ???

And that's just for Stealing, wait till you see the scripts for Stealth...snoop....hiding...not to mention magery or melee skills.
The game is just one big Script till you max out......then you "maybe" get lucky enough to steal something good like 1 in 50 times

 

[Zosimus]

Here are some questions for the devs....

Will katanas ever allowed to be poisoned again? There used to be poisoned katanas in the game so why not re-add them.

Any future plans on any new thief skill where they can be more viable in PvP? Or allow a weapon skill be tied to the stealing skill like a dagger.

Any new areas in the game that can be developed for RP purposes id the community asks for it?

Eliminating spawns and adding a possible PS to all Fel only creatures anywhere like the Tok arties system? This would help eliminate the luring issue players have imo and actually make PK's who like to look for a weak target go actually do some work on looking for Trammel players.

 

[Crimson Hawk Moth]

Just for the record I thought it would be cool to crawl around dungeons and sneek though fel towns on a lowbie (not that i would run into reds on my shard anyhow..)and steal from chests, until I realized I have no real chance of that until I hit high stealing. So me looking for engaging activity in UO is met with Just click fest a bag for 10k hours and u thief ! I righter not.... although a packhorse and a good book with very little effort ehhhh who knows !

 

[Zandor]

Why train anything now unless you are just bored? The direction the game has went encourages players to just insta-120 upon making the character (or macro but I'm not smart enough for that). What used to take 6 months to a year of actual playing the game can be done for relatively small amounts of gold instantly. I understand why they added the mythic tokens and such, obviously for the money, but if you are gonna sell out go BIG. Why not add vet rewards to the store along with a few vanity items? I'm sure lots of people would buy some extra vet rewards. In fact why make people wait on rewards at all, just sell them all. A person would still get yearly rewards but could also buy them at the store. I mean most people will never be able to get a lot of them because this game will be gone. Just sayin..

 

[nextwindow]

there are many ways that BS could make EASY money...but they don't want to, or can't, or aren't allowed to. or other....

 

[Lord Frodo]

there are many ways that BS could make EASY money...but they don't want to, or can't, or aren't allowed to. or other....

Someone else that understands that EA not BS runs UO, BS just manages it according to EA's rules.

 

[Thoronnar]

EA is a f***ed up corporation that destroyed UO. As long as UO remains property of EA, it will keep falling apart. Don't blame the devs, they are extremely understaffed. Blame EA, complain to EA, we are all EA customers receiving less than what we are paying for. We my friend, are being robbed by EA corporate power. I played shroud of the avatar, even though it seems to be going toward a great direction it is not, and it wont ever be UO.

This is not a "corporations are evil" kind of comment. But a "EA corp. is evil" comment. I wish they sold the game to somebody else that would have better plans for it.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

And that's just for Stealing, wait till you see the scripts for Stealth...snoop....hiding...not to mention magery or melee skills.
The game is just one big Script till you max out......then you "maybe" get lucky enough to steal something good like 1 in 50 times

I know what you mean- just trained up another t hunter on another shard - only way to get 95.5 carto if you don't have the gold for pinks is to make and resell 1000s of maps while you read or watch Netflix - that's playing the game?

 

[Uvtha]

EA is a f***ed up corporation that destroyed UO. As long as UO remains property of EA, it will keep falling apart. Don't blame the devs, they are extremely understaffed. Blame EA, complain to EA, we are all EA customers receiving less than what we are paying for. We my friend, are being robbed by EA corporate power. I played shroud of the avatar, even though it seems to be going toward a great direction it is not, and it wont ever be UO.

This is not a "corporations are evil" kind of comment. But a "EA corp. is evil" comment.

You act like UO was at some point not owned by EA. It was always owned by EA, and wouldn't even exist without EA. It's not EA's "fault" that hardly anyone plays this game, it's just an old game, more games have come along and little by little players move on, this is natural. Be happy they have anyone still working on this thing.

If you want to blame anyone for UO's problems blame the developers (not the publisher), and time... and the stubborn, reactionary player base.

 

[Thoronnar]

You act like UO was at some point not owned by EA. It was always owned by EA, and wouldn't even exist without EA. It's not EA's "fault" that hardly anyone plays this game, it's just an old game, more games have come along and little by little players move on, this is natural. Be happy they have anyone still working on this thing.

If you want to blame anyone for UO's problems blame the developers (not the publisher), and time... and the stubborn, reactionary player base.

I see what you are saying. But I strongly believe EA put a lot of resources on this game when it was very profitable, now that it is not they are just keeping it barely alive, just so they don't lose any money. If it becomes a burden they would sell it. EA made UO strong in the past only because it created a lot of profits for them. Having only 5 devs on staff means they obviously have no plans for making this game, again, what it once was. I am not "thankful" to EA for keeping the game up, I am paying for a service so there is nothing to be thankful about. Trust me, if there was 0 profit or loses that would hurt EA, UO would be sold or closed for good, the reason this doesn't happen is not because EA is good to us.

 

[Ender]

Hard to blame EA for not putting more resources into the game, because it's very unlikely that they'd gain anything from it. Advertising won't help because the game looks 20 years old and costs 13 bucks a month, and why would any new player want to play that instead of something like Star Wars The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2 or even just WoW still? They can't make the game look modern because no matter how much money they put into it current players would pancake and moan because it's "not UO" even if they say it's about the gameplay, not the graphics. And why would old players return when the game is completely different from what it used to be and they're likely not returning to the people they used to play with?

 

[Landicine]

I was having a conversation with some friends about Steam and various gaming platforms, and one made a crack about the EA Origin system. He doesn't play UO, but still has a great deal of frustration when using the system with other games. It is a terrible system that sadly our UO accounts are linked with and current purchases are done through. Blaming Broadsword is like blaming your waiter when the restaurant's kitchen was on fire before his shift. Still I would much prefer Steam to the current mess. Or the old account system before EA decided to put everything under the same leaky umbrella.

 

[Enziet]

As I've said before and I will say again. Even if UO is shutdown by EA (the shards can run on toasters so the over head isn't much at all) It will survive on by it's fan base and free shards. If they give up the rights to UO, it will be picked back up within a week by another company or a group of fans of the game, and it will continue on.

The same will happen eventually with WoW, I've no doubt.

Heh speaking of shards. I wouldn't be surprised if Origin shards are piggy backing off much more popular / populated games being how little actual power it takes to run a shard.

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

I know what you mean- just trained up another t hunter on another shard - only way to get 95.5 carto if you don't have the gold for pinks is to make and resell 1000s of maps while you read or watch Netflix - that's playing the game?

Kids these days....

I took cartography to 100 when you had to buy and resell maps.

Unstackable maps.

Work up the stock of maps on the vendor, make your maps one at a time, sell back to vendor.

Gawd I moved a lot a maps one at a time in my backpack.

 

[Slayvite]

Kids these days....

I took cartography to 100 when you had to buy and resell maps.

Unstackable maps.

Work up the stock of maps on the vendor, make your maps one at a time, sell back to vendor.

Gawd I moved a lot a maps one at a time in my backpack.

That's kinda the point. You don't have to even be at the computer these days to train most skills (if not all) and nothing is done about it as they are so desperate for any subs they can get.
Cheating is rife in UO but is now almost endorsed.

 

[BrianFreud]

You act like UO was at some point not owned by EA. It was always owned by EA, and wouldn't even exist without EA. It's not EA's "fault" that hardly anyone plays this game, it's just an old game, more games have come along and little by little players move on, this is natural. Be happy they have anyone still working on this thing.

No, EA bought Origin. Before that, UO was not owned by EA.

 

[Dot_Warner]

No, EA bought Origin. Before that, UO was not owned by EA.

This fallacy really needs to die.

Electronic Arts purchased Origin Systens Inc. in September of 1992, FIVE YEARS before the release of Ultima Online in September of 1997. EA has ALWAYS OWNED UO.

 

[BrianFreud]

This fallacy really needs to die.

Electronic Arts purchased Origin Systens Inc. in September of 1992, FIVE YEARS before the release of Ultima Online in September of 1997. EA has ALWAYS OWNED UO.

That sounds like it's quoting Wikipedia's Origin Systems page. Tell me if you can spot the error here...

"With the publication of Ultima Online they attracted the attention of EA games, who saw potential in the game, going on to buy Origin Systems in September 1992."

Ok, EA technically owned UO at the time. History Lesson: Electronic Arts Buys Origin - Wing Commander CIC My understanding, though, had been that EA was mainly interested in Ultima IX, whereas UO was a OSI-only side-project that was basically ignored by anyone at EA until after 1999, when UO took off and Ultima IX tanked.

 

[Dot_Warner]

That sounds like it's quoting Wikipedia's Origin Systems page. Tell me if you can spot the error here...

"With the publication of Ultima Online they attracted the attention of EA games, who saw potential in the game, going on to buy Origin Systems in September 1992."

Ok, EA technically owned UO at the time. History Lesson: Electronic Arts Buys Origin - Wing Commander CIC My understanding, though, had been that EA was mainly interested in Ultima IX, whereas UO was a OSI-only side-project that was basically ignored by anyone at EA until after 1999, when UO took off and Ultima IX tanked.

Wikipedia's amusing error is irrelevant to the argument.

This page is a better resource regarding EA's assimilations purchases: List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a studio owned by EA, OSI couldn't just spend money willy-nilly. UO had to have been approved...probably nearly every quarter until OSI was disbanded in '04. Many of their 90's acquisitions were briefly milked then run into the ground. UO has persisted in spite of EA.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Kids these days....

I took cartography to 100 when you had to buy and resell maps.

Unstackable maps.

Work up the stock of maps on the vendor, make your maps one at a time, sell back to vendor.

Gawd I moved a lot a maps one at a time in my backpack.

Getting too old for that. My hands are hurting today from clicking 100s of lock picks last night. If there was a program that automated repetitive mouse clicks that worked with UO, you bet I would use it and would not consider it cheating in the least

 

[Tina Small]

Since the Stygian Abyss publish (Sept 2009), the gumps for all of the crafting skills in the Classic Client have had options for making a specific number of items or for "make max" to use up all available resources in your pack and have also had the option to mark crafted items automatically as quest items. I think the KR/Enhanced client had those options before then, but can't remember if those options were always available in that client from when it was released in 2007 or were added later.

 

[Archnight]

Getting too old for that. My hands are hurting today from clicking 100s of lock picks last night. If there was a program that automated repetitive mouse clicks that worked with UO, you bet I would use it and would not consider it cheating in the least

Thank God they created these

(SoT's) a while back, you don't even need those automated programs anymore and it's completely legal hehe

 

[AtlanticRealtor]

uhmm
Yo answer some of your questions...
I donno if you noticed but, after the Major Stratics Drama and Bans, the Devs dont post on stratics anymore and refer everything to uo.com ONLY!!!
just saying!!

 

[Uvtha]

No, EA bought Origin. Before that, UO was not owned by EA.

Right and wrong. EA purchased Origin in 92, true, but it was well before UO even began development. So, EA was the company who put up the money for UO to even get created. Anytime you remember UO being amazing, EA owned it. It's not like they at one point swooped in and "ruined" the game.

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

1. They gonna concentrate in fixing errors

2. Yes a couple of years until the next expansion, we just had a recent one, so dont expect one for another 3+ years

3. I dont think UO will ever go to Steam as for one and I cannot remember where I heard it or read it, Steam asked EA and UO Dev team to include an anti-cheat system into the game before they would show it to the public.... I think its here where the talks finished or came to a halt, as its up to EA/BS/UO to implement a system.

4. Adopting another system wouldnt help UO/EA pockets, so I doubt it would happen, plus everyone would complain lots a new kiddos joined the game if it went free.
The worst of it, lots complain about the lack of player base, but if they were to be a massive intake, I am sure everyone would complain too, soo its pointless!!
Making this game into a more item based game by changing the system, would also just help the people with healthy economies and good jobs, the average Joe would not have a chance against someone who has lots of cash in their bank waiting to spend in pixel crack.

I could go on and elaborate more my points but going to be straight forward and direct

 

[Uvtha]

Ok, EA technically owned UO at the time. History Lesson: Electronic Arts Buys Origin - Wing Commander CIC My understanding, though, had been that EA was mainly interested in Ultima IX, whereas UO was a OSI-only side-project that was basically ignored by anyone at EA until after 1999, when UO took off and Ultima IX tanked.

UO took dozens of people several years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop. The idea that EA, like, didn't know it existed until around 2000 is silly. Heck they even showcased the project at the 95 E3.

The idea that EA "ruined" UO is nonsense, the notion that it happened some time AFTER whatever period anyone wants to declare as an example of when UO was good, is just flat out inaccurate scapegoating. Without EA there most likely would have been no UO.

I think this all stems from the closing of Origin studios in austin and moving everyone to EA redwood, people seem to think that this is when EA "took over", which is not correct. That move you absolutely could argue was a bad one, and bad for the game, but EA already owned Origin, and had for over a decade.

 

[Uvtha]

3. I dont think UO will ever go to Steam as for one and I cannot remember where I heard it or read it, Steam asked EA and UO Dev team to include an anti-cheat system into the game before they would show it to the public.... I think its here where the talks finished or came to a halt, as its up to EA/BS/UO to implement a system.

I don't recall hearing that myself, and it seems unlikely to me, considering how many ****/broke/unfinished games there are on steam, that valve demands any specific experience demands or watermarks. That's what the refund option is for.

The only thing I ever recall reading was from Messanna, saying they wanted to have a new player experience and some other things set up before going live on steam, I imagine the in game store was part of the plan. Maybe they have a new player experience in mind? I doubt it, as I have heard nothing about such a development, but...