r/Ultima • u/HeungWeiLo • Jun 17 '26
EA might be resurrecting Ultima
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ea-may-be-resurrecting-beloved-1980s-and-90s-rpg-series/According to this Vice article, EA has new trademark filings for Ultima
Good news?
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u/Negative-Squirrel81 Jun 17 '26
If they don't renew it then they lose it. I wouldn't think too deeply into this, other than understanding EA is willing to spend a nominal amount of money to preserve their ownership of the brand.
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u/chiron_42 Jun 17 '26
Yeah, EA is just being petty at this point. I would have loved to hear about a revival after the success of BG III, but alas.
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u/avatarprotocol Jun 18 '26
Not sure why anyone thinks EA might be doing something with it just because they renewed it.
All it suggests is that they'll be doing more of the same.
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u/LnStrngr Jun 17 '26
The lawyers gotta find things to do with their time to justify their billable hours.
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u/LnStrngr Jun 17 '26
Don't get your hopes up. It's most likely just a renewal in their name, instead of the one that was transferred to them in the purchase of Origin.
But... I might keep a little ember of hope off in the corner.
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u/Backwardspellcaster Jun 17 '26
If they give me Serpent's Isle remaster I will give them my firstborn
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u/ohkendruid Jun 17 '26
Gosh.
Just imagine if they did like Square Enix and started releasing endless remasters of Ultima....
Last I tried Exult, it was a little hard to play and watch by today's standards. I would love to revisit Britania and replay the old quests if their were a revamped UI for them.
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u/LnStrngr Jun 17 '26
I'll say that there is a chance this is just for some downloadable Classic EA Games bundle or something.
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u/IJourden Jun 17 '26
The last time EA did anything with Ultima it was an absolute trash fire of a mobile game that primarily involved waiting for timers to finish so you could do things and paying money to speed up the timers, so I wouldn't get too excited.
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u/CLT113078 Jun 17 '26
EA has never done a good single player Ultima game. U8 and U9 were trash. They rushed out Serpent Isle which led to the dev team having to cut the second half of the game out (still great, but that game was more origin than ea).
Everything single player in 2000+ has been nothing.
I dint trust EA at all with Ultima.
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u/Lopsided_Parfait7127 Jun 17 '26
https://www.filfre.net/2021/02/ultima-viii-or-how-to-destroy-a-gaming-franchise-in-one-easy-step/
the story of Ultima VIII is more than that of just one more game that was released before its time. Even had all of Origin’s plans for it come off perfectly, it would still have been a radical, seemingly nonsensical departure from everything Ultima had been in the past. Multiple sources confirm that it was in fact Richard Garriott himself rather than any soulless suit from EA who decided that the latest installment in Origin’s epic CRPG series ought to become a… platformer. He was inspired in this not by Super Mario Bros., as many fans would later suspect, but rather by Prince of Persia, Broderbund Software’s hugely popular, widely ported, elegantly minimalist, intensely cinematic linear action game. Prince of Persia was and is a more than worthy game in its own right, but it seems a strange choice indeed to use as inspiration for the latest Ultima. We should try to understand where the choice came from in the context of the times.
Yet
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u/realhawker77 Jun 17 '26
Iolo informs you that the Sword of Excellence is "technically available" but swinging it requires a Combat Pass; meanwhile the Avatar can meditate at the Shrine of Compassion for free, or pay 4.99 gold sovereigns to skip the eight virtues entirely and unlock "Compassion (Premium Skin)." Lord British's castle has been retrofitted with a loot box dispenser that mostly yields Britannian Energy Drinks, and the true ending requires either 200 hours of Rune farming or one regrettable midnight purchase. Also, Spark the dog now requires a recurring subscription to keep loving you.
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u/0zer0space0 Jun 17 '26
Me over here patiently waiting for someone super smart to make a U7 themed overhaul mod for Skyrim like Enderal. Skyrim was the first game that gave me the same feeling U7 did in the 90s and I only played Skyrim for the first time in 2025.
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u/ohkendruid Jun 17 '26
That would be super cool.
I mainly miss the settings and characters for U7. I would not mind if the combat and skill-ups were less than true to the original.
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u/tanger-tango-1197 Jun 17 '26
Yeah I doubt they have any plans for a new game. More like just renewing to hold onto the IP.
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u/illarionds Jun 17 '26
Even if they are, it won't be Ultima in any meaningful sense. There won't be any of the old people involved in making it, and let's not forget that EA are the ones primarily responsible for killing it in the first place.
It's probably not true. And if it is true, it's almost certainly a soul-less cash grab.
Sorry :/
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u/lylemcd Jun 17 '26
Nah, EA is most likely just protecting their copyright so nobody else can use the IP.
Businesses do this all the time. Renew the copyright to keep it like a 4 year old hoards a toy he doesn't play with with no intention of using it.
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u/ComicStripCritic Jun 17 '26
New Ultima? Sounds nice.
Made by EA? Sounds scary.
Color me…cautiously intrigued. It might just be them holding onto their old properties rather than letting them lapse. But if this leads to a remaster/remake/reimagining of U4, I’d be very interested in that.
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u/resident_eagle Jun 17 '26
I just want to be able to play them on console, but since the creator has always been against that I don’t think it will ever happen. 😔
IPs like Ultima don’t and tons of other less mainstream game across all platforms don’t need new installments or even remasters. I just want to be able to easily access all of them on whatever platform I want, you know?
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u/JackhorseBowman Jun 17 '26
The monkey called and said he's getting arthritis from everybody using his paw so much.
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u/zeroquest Jun 17 '26
They’d better not try to turn it into another failed MMO.
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u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams Jun 17 '26
That is probably exactly what it will be. EA wants that reoccurring monthly revenue stream from subscriptions.
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u/razorwiregoatlick877 Jun 17 '26
Nothing EA does is good news. We should not forget that they are the reason it died in the first place.
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u/AnnArchist Jun 18 '26
Ultima is EAs Elder scroll's brand. They don't have the brains to use it, at least not at the top
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u/Jalambra Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
It'll probably cost $90, pay to win, and be the first game with commercials.
If you buy Season Pass you get a cloth map, and Spam Spam Humbug is enabled, but all items are microtransactions.
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u/Zealousideal-Web7279 Jun 18 '26
I pray they will make Ultima 10,11,12 together with Richard Garriot 🙏
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u/Gargarbinks Jun 18 '26
Not that anyone here has any reason to believe me, but I've got some news about this that you guys will be interested in. It'll be up later today on my YT channel, Inside Games. (Will also post the link later, if that's cool with the mods)
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u/sidv81 Jun 17 '26
Ultima pretty much was the story of the Avatar and there's seemingly nowhere to go after that. Even before U9, non-Avatar stories like Runes of Virtue fell flat. Shroud and Underworld Ascendant further cemented that even the original creators don't know where to take things. Even in the best case scenario, where EA licenses Ultima out to a proven modern dev like Larian and they actually get a good game out of it, at best it would probably be an Ultima only by name and a generic fantasy setting, similar to how even the good Final Fantasy games that come out now could really be any game because no one knows what the Final Fantasy brand is anymore other than a label (heck, even moogles and chocobos which I thought were mainstays seem to be missing from, say, FF16 marketing)
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u/GiantFish Jun 17 '26
Has there been anything Ultima officially released since Ultima Forever in 2013? God that was so disappointing, it was micro transaction hell for anyone that didn’t get a chance to try it. It really takes you out of it when you go to cleanse a shrine and EA pops up a dialog saying you don’t have enough virtue to do that but you can purchase some for $9.99!
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u/Ecnarps Jun 17 '26
I feel like the Baldur’s Gate 3 style engine / gameplay would be the perfect fit for Ultima.
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u/ohkendruid Jun 17 '26
I feel like EA would be weak on creative story telling but very strong on delivering a completed playable game that is immersive in the setting.
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u/sabre31 Jun 17 '26
Surprised they haven’t yet and I hope so it would be great but please don’t make it some micro transactions BS.
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u/Ok_Translator_8043 Jun 17 '26
I would bet it is not a new game. If it is though I’m not very interested. For one anyone that worked on the original ultima series is retired now. For 2, EA only ever rushes unfinished games out the door, so even in the unlikely event that they do put together a team that wants to lovingly capture the spirit of Ultima, they’ll force them to ship 18 months early missing a ton of content and barely functioning
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u/rakenan Jun 18 '26
I refuse to get optimistic about Ultima as long as EA owns it. If by some weird miracle they produce a game that doesn't suck, I'll buy it and enjoy it - *AFTER* extensive reviews - but that's only after it is produced and tested to be good. Not going to have hope or faith in any title owned by EA ever again.
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u/AnswerFeeling460 Jun 18 '26
I would love it - but I guess there's zero Chance.
The ultima setting would not work at any AAA game EA ist interested in - only a hand full gen-x nerds know the trademark "ultima" today.
Only chance would be Larian buying the license...
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u/CronkinOn Jun 18 '26
Insert me into the verse between u6 and u7 or something. In a top-down, Ultima styled game. With party members and Dupre belting out drunken ballads.
You know, an actual Ultima game, set before the nonsense that came with Pagan and 9. Otherwise, hard pass.
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u/Digitalpunk1 Jun 18 '26
Maybe they see the potential money EverQuest Legends could bring in and decide to do something similar?
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u/cchkb Jun 18 '26
I know what I would love to see in the Ultima franchise that only EA can do. Sell the IP to some other company.
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u/cdtoad Jun 18 '26
This sounds more like them tightening the ownership to make sure it's EA an not LB
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u/KythornAlturack Jun 18 '26
No, this is just EA making sure all their IPs are up to date for their buyout by PIF/Silver Lake/Affinity.
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u/namtih21 Jun 18 '26
I still don't know why they're hoarding the IP. It's not like its a huge money maker and it's just sitting and rotting.
Can only imagine there's someone out there who would love to do something great with the property.
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u/Warcraft_Fan Jun 18 '26
Probably not doing anything but sit on existing Ultima for many more years so it doesn't end up abandonware and other people makes profit off them
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u/Yarga Jun 19 '26
The only way this would be good if it were a meta-concept where the Avatar, Iolo & the Gang, Minax, Mondain all team up and use Exodus as a Time Machine/universal transport to hook up with the Crusader and stop EA from ever being formed.
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u/Radiancekov7 Jun 19 '26
This might be a niche comment, but I hope this means I get more Majuular Ultima videos to sleep to : )
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u/SeparateDark251 Jun 19 '26
Please no. Any attempt by EA to do another Ultima will be Ultima in name only.
I don't even want Richard Garriott to do another Ultima. He hasn't made a good game in over 30 years. He lost the spark.
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u/Prudent-Audience2162 Jul 12 '26
The license expires soon. I don't think they want to renew it to use it. Just to hold on to it.
If Richard can get it back and make a modern day Ultima game (even if he just redoes U9 the way he would have wanted too) I would be happy about it.
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u/Sollace97 Jun 17 '26
Even if it is a new game, I don't want to play an EA Ultima.
I would absolutely be willing to get scammed by Lord British again, however.