Ultima X
| Ultima X: Odyssey | |
|---|---|
Planned cover art
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| Developer(s) | Origin Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Series | Ultima |
| Engine | Unreal Engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | Cancelled |
| Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Ultima X: Odyssey was to be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based in the Ultima universe, developed by Origin Systems for Electronic Arts.
Although scheduled to be released sometime in 2004, EA cancelled the project on June 30, 2004, after the closure of Origin and the layoffs of several employees. Despite being a multiplayer game, Ultima X was being marketed as a continuation of the Ultima series that was last visited with Ultima IX rather than as a sequel or replacement to the still commercially successful Ultima Online.
Ultima X: Odyssey was the first Ultima game developed after series creator Richard Garriott left Origin, and is the second Ultima-based MMORPG to be cancelled (Ultima Worlds Online: Origin — Ultima Online 2 — was cancelled in 2001). This followed in the wake of other MMORPG cancellations in 2004, including True Fantasy Live Online, Mythica, and Warhammer Online (which was revived in 2005).
The game was cancelled with a letter to fans on June 30, 2004:
Despite the letter, no plans of the future were ever shared or officially released for Ultima Online. Expansion packs were released at a later date; however, they made no mention of whether they were actually part of the future plans involved in the decision to cancel Ultima X.
Ultima X: Odyssey was to use the lauded Unreal engine. As with most MMORPGs, players would have had to pay a monthly fee to play it. Ultima X hoped to revitalize the MMORPG genre, which many have criticized as being full of EverQuest clones. For example, it promised exciting combat as opposed to the "press 'A' to auto-attack" found in many MMORPGs. The fiction stated that after Ultima IX, the Avatar created the new world called Alucinor in which Ultima X is set. Moongates throughout Alucinor would allow players to traverse the game world quickly and all players would have the ability to teleport their friends to their current location.
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