by Azaroth | July 23rd, 2009
There’s been a recent announcement that people generally seem to be taking as saying “Ultima Online 2 will be developed in China for the Asian market”. I’m not entirely sure that’s what the press release is saying, but… maybe. You can decide.
Electronic Arts is planning to release an updated version of classic Western MMO Ultima Online into the Chinese market.
The game – the original of which launched the careers of Richard Garriott and Raph Koster among others – will be redeveloped by teams at EA Mythic and Hong Kong-based NetDragon Websoft.
“We are delighted to further our relationship with EA through the development of Ultima Online,” said Liu Dejian, chairman and executive director of NetDragon. “Capitalising on our ability to create a strong online gaming experience, we are confident that Ultima Online will be a success in China and will also achieve remarkable results in the other markets where we’ll operate the game.”
And Jon Niermann, president of EA Asia, added: “Ultima Online is a well known EA property and we’re delighted to bring the game to fans in China, Hong Kong, Macau and India. NetDragon is a proven partner and we’re confident in their expertise to build and operate a great gaming experience for players.”
The move by EA is the latest in a bid to try and gain greater traction in the Asian market, and follows the success of FIFA Online in the territory in the past couple of years.
It will also be a direct rival to Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, currently offline but thought to be relaunching soon after issues with changing operators in the country.
Hong Kong, July 22 /PRNewswire Asia/ — Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and NetDragon Websoft Inc., a leading game developer and operator in China (“NetDragon”, with its subsidiaries collectively know as the “Group”; stock code: 777), today announced a licensing agreement for the development of a new massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) based on “Ultima Online”TM from Electronic Arts. As part of the agreement, NetDragon will develop the new Ultima Online™ in collaboration with EA’s Mythic Entertainment, and have the exclusive operating license for China, Hong Kong, Macau and India.
Rob Denton, General Manager and Vice President of Mythic Entertainment added “We’re thrilled to be able to work with NetDragon to bring the pioneering Ultima Online to a new audience in these exciting markets.”
I guess, to me, it seems like something was potentially lost in translation on the Asian sites. The direct quote from Rob Denton that isn’t being translated reads very much like there’s really no new game being developed. Perhaps some changes and additions, I don’t know.
But then again, I could easily be wrong. Everyone seems to think there’s going to be (or already is) a new Ultima Online in the works.
I don’t think Western UO fans will recognize the end product if that’s the case, though.
UPDATE:
As I suspected, no new game.
When contacted, representatives at Mythic Entertainment confirmed the project, but made clear that this its aim is to bring the UO experience to those foreign markets, not to create a sequel.
Loading ...
Perhaps in a noble effort to out do us on the retarded Samurai patch, the Asians will release an American redneck patch. Mounts will be replaces with race cars and potions will now be different flavors of shitty American light beers.
Owned.
New housing decorations will include bathtubs on the porch with mounted shotgun and broken washing machines in the lawn. The washing machines will spawn puppy dogs.
Can we just all get together and form a great presentation for a company and get them on board with a real followup to IPY.
Seriously these games are beyond shit and I know I sound like an old fart or something but really… we need something good to play.
Mega bored with these games. It’s all cheaters and no lifers, which is cool, but who has the time for that shit these days.
I feel like consoles are going to win out soon, which is a pity.
Got tired of Darkfall, Yaht?
Lol yeah dude it’s… not for me…
But I still like ruling the IRC with an iron fist.
Can we get on with IPY 2.0? You understand by now in your deep philosophical rhetoric that the medium SURELY doesn’t matter, just the content right?????????????
Lets do this!!!!!!!!!
Well, since UO is going to China’s internet cafes, I might open IPY: China.
Do you speak Mandarin, motherfucker?
By the way dude, what you want in a “lifer” probably won’t happen.
The kind of budget you’d need for that game would be astronomical. The market really probably isn’t there to make any sort of profit.
I doubt Darkfall turns a profit, even. They’ve got what, ten million in fucking bank loans and soon to be two half full servers (half) full of people intent on making everyone else cancel their subscription?
Now if I’m an independent billionaire, maybe I can help you out. Maybe. if I liked losing money to have fun. Which I often do. Because a $300 million UO2 would be a hell of a lot of fun.
But yeah, sorry.
As far as IPY 2.0, you’re absolutely right. I’ll have more IPY 2.0-related answers in a month or so.
“By the way dude” -
I agree there probably isn’t an initial profit. There never is. A market like that needs to be penetrated and galvanized and it’s just becoming harder and harder to do. Companies do not want to stick their neck out for something people moved away from in droves over a decade ago. The models used lately have been successful but that doesn’t mean it’s not viable to actually create a casual friendly game with real risk vs reward and sustainable value over time.
“I doubt Darkfall turns a profit” -
A game like Darkfall gets very boring very quickly, because there are pratfalls in the end game. It has the risk vs reward but they are not on par with each other. The interactions in the game are sooooo unbalanced in favor of risk that it ends up like a naked zerg vs zerg roving blob across the world map, because every single end game dynamic is a liability. The basic strategy is “hard, fast, and continuously” which is, if you think about it, pretty antiquated in real world combat and surely unrewarding to the PERSON behind the screen sooner rather than later. I doubt it turns a profit, either… which is not a good thing. Every failure from a BUSINESS perspective, regardless of whether or not the game is mega uber or just a wash-out, has negative implications in the short and long run of this industry and particularly the “pvp niche” segment. These games do not hold water.
You brought up something very important at the end of your Darkfall comment. I feel with a strong conviction that the common player, representing the whole “mmo playerbase” as a whole has changed over the years. They are more self centered as a result of the games being designed as more ego-centric. I don’t know how this can change but I honestly think it reflects a lot of the hubris of the times. Now far be it from me or you to condemn the vaaaaaast majority of gamers as a detriment to the online PC gaming environment, but I really think it is. I used to place a lot of blame on the companies. I mean, they basically gold sinked a lot of RL cash to mold their customers into care bears. I used to blame them for that but in reality, it’s just business. The real issue is that the players themselves don’t say no. I think it’s somewhat comparable (off the top of my head) to obesity in America. People like to blame McDonald’s for making them fat. I don’t buy that, nobody made you eat that pile of shit a trillion times over. It’s about the habits of people and they will naturally want to take the most direct, coddled and cuddly route to their destination… in this case, “being special” or “being unique” or “being #1″ or “owning hard” but in reality they aren’t, they are cutting corners left and right. And when there is no corner to cut? Well, they will brute force it, protest and quit in droves after realization of the long route being the only viable path. A lot of the problems really stem from the players. They are lazy pieces of shit. It reflects how the internet has become – anybody these days can be a Facespace having smug center-of-the-internet Superhero. And that is just sad.
If you got cash to burn lets create an indie gaming convention at Vegas with the intention of exploring and facilitating ideas and growth in an industry that has become choked with too many babies crying out for too few bottles.
IPY 2.0 could work on a dime or it could REALLY work on a dollar, and thats where you’re having a hard time coping with it. You gotta spend money to make money, and nobody out there capable of doing so wants to. Or even understands whats at stake.
Actually, I see “IPY 2.0″ as having a pretty limited capacity for attracting people. I mean, we’re not talking about big numbers here. We’re talking about a server that’s maybe half full compared to a server that’s full. There’s little or no money to be made either way, so I don’t care if it’d “REALLY” work on a dollar. :)
Doesn’t mean I’m not thinking it over. I’m just not expecting to make any money off of it, really.
If I thought there was any kind of decent profit involved, it’d be up right now. Along with a few other servers.
By the way – players never got lazy or got selfish. They always were. They were just forced into a certain environment when UO was the only game in town.
For the most part, they didn’t really like that. That’s why you got EQ and WoW.
By the way Avernus, I like light beer. I’ve battled alcohol addiction my entire life and if I ever find myself in the depths of a serious relapse, all I have to do is throw back six or seven Coors Light and I don’t want to see any fucking beer again for about four months.
Coors light is not beer it is water with poison
A foul tasting poison at that.