EA Says There Are No Discussions With Garriott About Ultima OnlineUpdate: We've now gotten clarification from Garriott's spokesperson, who stated, "Richard is not CURRENTLY having conversations at high levels with Electronic Arts regarding the Ultima franchise. He never said that he is. I can assure you, however, that those conversations have taken place in the past."
He added, "What is taking place right now are conversations with EA as well as other companies regarding potential partnerships/distribution deals involving our other products including Ultimate Collector and our Casino games, Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack. These are normal and expected communications taking place as we move closer to launching Utlimate Collector sometime after the first of the year."
Original story:
Back in September, we reported that Richard Garriott voiced his desire to collaborate with EA on more Ultima. This week, speaking to Eurogamer, Garriott took it one step further, noting that he's "had discussions at very high levels with Electronic Arts about access to the property," and "We're in discussions with Electronic Arts even now about a possible marketing and distribution relationships and things of this nature." That's great, but EA doesn't think so because EA says none of it is true.
"I'm not sure what Richard Garriott is referring to. But no one at EA is discussing partnership or licensing opportunities related to the Ultima Online franchise," Jeff Brown, EA's head of corporate communications, told IndustryGamers today.
Garriott had previously stated, "Electronic Arts is a big company. There are some parts of the organization that would love and embrace and clearly understand the logic of 'wouldn't it be great to work together on an Ultima'. And then there are other parts of the organization who - I'm actually not sure where the resistance comes from, but it must be people who either have their own ideas about where the product should go, or have their own ideas about whether or nor I should be involved in it. And I don't know where the counter-forces come from."
Garriott has been talking about creating his "Ultimate RPG" for some time now. He talked in depth with IndustryGamers recently about the design of it. Even if a deal with EA is never reached, Garriott believes his next game will be a "spiritual successor" to Ultima Online.
