EA Announces Free Playable RPG Ultima Forever

Electronic Arts announces that ‘the first great western RPG’ is getting a sequel with Ultima Forever. The game is made by BioWare and has a comic book style. Enthusiasts can sign up for a beta test.

Electronic Arts is dusting off the Ultima license; without any prior notice, the publisher has opened a website for Ultima Forever, a game that EA says falls into the Play 4 Free program. The RPG is being made by BioWare, the Canadian RPG studio owned by EA. The publisher hasn’t released much about the game yet. “Accept Lady British’s challenge and save Britannia. Play as Fighter or Mage and go out alone or with friends to restore order and become the Avatar.” The game seems to have two playable classes. The game will be cross-platform, according to EA.

EA acquired the rights to Ultima in 1992, when it acquired developer Origin Systems. That studio, under the direction of founder Richard Garriott, delivered the first installment in the series in 1981 with Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. The last part appeared with Ultima IX: Ascension from 1999. In the meantime, Garriott had also delivered one of the first mmogs with Ultima Online. To describe Ultima Online, Garriott also coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which has been the standard term for such games ever since. Garriott made headlines earlier this week because Portalarium, his new company, raised $7 million from investors to create two mobile games.