Lord British Returns To Ultima Online

Thanks to Origin for their news release announcing Lord British is returning to the world of PC MMORPG Ultima Online. The article trails: "Talk circulates throughout the land of the return of a figure from Britannia's past, whose whereabouts have been shrouded in mystery for these many moons", and GameShark has contacted NCSoft Austin, where Ultima creator Richard 'Lord British' Garriott now works (and where he has even introduced Lord British's character into Lineage), and reports that "Richard Garriott... gave [Origin/EA] permission to reintroduce the character into the world of Ultima. Origin apparently made a deal with Richard that allowed them to use the character if they had Richard's blessings."

Comments

Richard Garriott

[Henry V .009]

The headline made me think that Richard Garriott was returning to create more Ultima games. I have read a couple interviews with him, and think that he has an interesting take on game design. I never got a chance to play any of the Ultima games--though I remember reading reviews of them in the gaming magazines when I was little. Virtue in gaming seems like a very interesting idea given what we usualy see in games.

Re:Wow

[neostorm]

Or NCSoft isn't doing so well in the states and he received large sums of money in exchange for "leasing" the name to EA.

This surprised me too, so I wonder what could have happened to make him turn partial use of the name over to them.

This also makes me wonder if this is just for the current UO and if EA is planning to put British in UOX as well.

RIP "Lord British"

[evil-osm]

No Lord British = Not an Ultima
No Richard Garriot = Not Lord British

Thanks for the series Richard, I'm really looking forward to your next creations. Here's hoping they will be as influential as the past ones.

P.S. Think "single player"... wink wink :)