Richard Garriott’s Ultimate RPG Could Become Ultima Online 2

Talking to Eurogamer, Richard Garriott expands on how much his “Ultimate RPG” project is a spiritual successor to 1997’s Ultima Online, and notes he’s been in contact with EA and that “theoretically” the title could become UO2.

Regardless of whether an EA deal is struck, Garriott said Ultimate RPG will “clearly” be a spiritual successor to Ultima Online.

“What essentially makes an Ultima an Ultima is the principles of design,” Garriott explained. “And I’m very confident that when players sit down with this new world they will very quickly recognise that, whether or not we end up doing any deal with Electronic Arts.

“This is clearly the spiritual successor of the Ultima series,” he said.

A successor, but not a sequel – Garriott is keen for the setting to move on.

“If you look back at Ultimas 1, 2, 3 – they weren’t related to the rest [of the games]. Five of the later six games were all in literally the exact same world with the exact same characters and cities,” he recalled.

“I actually think it’s time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don’t think I would change my current plans. I’m very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless.”