UWO: Origin (UO2) Cancelled!

Some very surprising news was released today on the official UWO: Origin website (the sequel to Ultima Online). The game has been cancelled. Here’s a direct quote from the site:

Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of UWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating UWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we’ve decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online’s 230,000 loyal subscribers. In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.

I feel sorry for all the people who have been watching this game grow for the last couple of years. Let’s hope they do something grand with the original now that production has ceased on the sequel.