Next verse, same as the first
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth among MMORPG players when Electronic Arts announced its cancellation of what was, by all accounts, the best MMO game in development on 21 March, 2001 - Ultima Online 2. In hindsight, maybe it wouldn’t have been that great, since the lead designer, Raph “DesignerDragon” Koster, went on to design what is arguably the best MMORPG on paper and one of the worst in execution - Star Wars Galaxies. “Who let the fun out?” indeed.
Fast forward to today, a little over 3 years later, when Electronic Arts has now cancelled another companion for the venerable Ultima Online in the MMO market again - Ultima X: Odyssey has officially been canned.
While I find the trend of large gaming publishers abandoning the MMO business somewhat troublesome (since it’s probably my favorite genre), what I find even more disturbing is how similar the two press statements are:
- Ultima Online 2’s cancellation notice from 21 March 2001
- Ultima X: Odyssey’s cancellation notice from 30 June 2004
I felt like I was in some sort of time-warp after reading those.