Richard Garriott is a legendary game developer who brought us the classic RPG franchise Ultima and more with his company Origin. Origin has long since been sold to EA and there has not been a mainline Ultima series since 1999, but Ultima Online has been maintained by EA in the years since. Garriott has since gone on to work on other games and other endeavors outside of gaming, but he never lost his love of the Ultima series.
In a recent exchange on X ( formerly Twitter, the topic of Garriott pitching remakes of the Ultima games to EA and being rejected was brought up, but Garriot himself chimed in to say he has a plan going forward
True. But… I have a plan.
— Richard Garriott (@RichardGarriott) December 21, 2024
Garriott then went on to note that things move in cycles and his plan would see him “kick off a new beginning”.
Life goes in cycles. I am enjoying my exploration activities… as I always have. But I still love games too. I hope to keep both. We will see! But… I think I have a good plan to “kick off a new beginning”… time will tell. I know I have plenty of supporters and plenty of… https://t.co/3MvRtMcwoZ
— Richard Garriott (@RichardGarriott) December 21, 2024
Going by this, it seems Garriott may be planning a spiritual sequel to his iconic series ( a second attempt after Shroud of the Avatar), but what this would involve remains to be seen.
In recent years, we have seen throwback RPGs that capture the spirit of classic CRPGS such as Skald: Against the Black Priory and Moonring, so perhaps Garriott has something similar planned.
That being said, Garriott has also made comments indicating he has not given up on getting the rights back to Ultima.
Or… how about I take it back, and we make one more run at it. With care. With budget. With extensive preproduction. With sufficient time.
TBD order of remakes vs new games, retro tech vs bleeding edges.
— Richard Garriott (@RichardGarriott) December 21, 2024
We will have to wait to see what happens next.
