Broadsword successor to development of UO!

[Voxpire]

http://www.uo.com/article/Producer-Letter-0

Exciting news from EA's side of Sosaria.....

From http://www.uo.com/article/Producer-Letter-0

Greetings Everyone!

I come to you with some exciting news! Since its humble beginnings at Origin Systems Incorporated in 1997, through development at EA Redwood Shores and for the last 7+ years at Mythic, Ultima Online™ has been enjoyed by millions of devoted players around the world.

Beginning February 1st, 2014, Mythic Entertainment Co-Founder Rob Denton’s new studio: Broadsword Online Games (http://www.broadsword.com) will partner with EA’s Mythic Entertainment to operate, support and develop Ultima Online on EA’s behalf. Electronic Arts will continue to provide billing and account services through its Origin™ portal. Broadsword and Electronic Arts will work closely together to ensure a bright future for Ultima Online. For future inquiries and support, you can contact [email protected].

The UO team will continue to work as hard as ever under our new banner. In the immediate future, we will be putting out a publish for Valentine’s Day and a few bug fixes, along with polishing a final release of Vendor Search. I will be putting out a list very soon of all the features we will be working on this year to get everyone’s feedback as well as some updates regarding our ongoing projects.

I know this has left everyone with a lot of questions, so I will try to answer a few right off the bat. As always we will collect any additional questions and try to answer them as they come in.

Talk to everyone soon!

Bonnie “Mesanna” Armstrong
UO Producer
Ultima Online




Q and A


Will this transition alter the plans for Ultima Online in the near term and the future?

Yes! Both Broadsword and EA are heavily invested in the continued success of Ultima Online and our future has never looked so bright! Customers in need of help or questions should contact [email protected]

Is Broadsword an Electronic Arts studio?

No. However, for purposes of Ultima Online, Broadsword will be operating the game on EA’s behalf to continue its success.

Will there be a change in the payment system?

Nope! Players will continue to access UO through EA’s Origin™ portal. There will be no interruption or change in the payment service. Players may notice that charges on their bank statements will still indicate a payment to Mythic or EA - - and Game Time Codes will still be available via the EA Origin™ Store.

What will happen to any information I’ve provided to EA/Mythic?

Nothing. Since Broadsword is operating Ultima Online on EA’s behalf, all the information you provided and may provide in the future will continue to be managed according to EA’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Will there be changes to the Ultima Online development team?

Yes! Broadsword's additional investment into UO gives us the freedom to expand our resources for bigger projects, so again - the future has never looked so bright!

Will emails change?

Yes, they will, in the meantime you can reach out to us at [email protected]

 

[Hank]

well at least lunch lady (inside joke) will still have her job.
I think they made this move to primarily keep UO from shutting the doors. I don't see how a company like EA is proud of the financial rate of UO.

But thank you Voxpire for bringing this to the communities attention.
Edit: I wonder what this means for the future of the free community. The community that has their heart and soul poured into a game we love so much.

 

[Milva]

Yes hopefully this will be a good step for the free community and not a huge problem

 

[Praxiiz]

The reason they are touting this as good news is because the Mythic UO team was down to just a couple people. At least they will have a few more devs now.

 

[otimpyre]

Ehh... Broadsword 14 gamers that develop worlds. Ptthh We are the freeshard community.

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[Voxpire]

Broadsword is hiring, thinking about applying...

 

[Hank]

Broadsword is hiring, thinking about applying...

Do it.

 

[Praxiiz]

Send a copy of the server code my way when you get hired. I just don't think I could bring myself to sign the NDA.

 

[Insanity]

Server code? I'd rather have the source to the client. We have plenty of server solutions...

 

[Praxiiz]

Either one would be entertaining. I mean honestly, who names a data structure "MapThingie" or "Treecrap"?

 

[Insanity]

Lol, young devs on their way out the door?

 

[Praxiiz]

The sad thing is that no one has renamed them in 7 versions.

 

[Praxiiz]

Edited: Thought better of posting that, at least until I go back and reread forum rules to make sure it's ok. I don't remember what the policy is on posting client stuff.

 

[otimpyre]

Broadsword is hiring, thinking about applying...

Once you infiltrate the art department please drop the art tools onto a thumbnail drive.

 

[HellRazor]

Outsourcing = beginning of the end.

 

[Praxiiz]

I don't see the forum rules link, so I'm going to go ahead and post this. Feel free to moderate it at will.

I thought this was an entertaining debug statement that was left in one of the clients:

"CDrawItem::RemoveFromDrawList(): code would have asserted because 'DrawMapThingie::table[locY][locX] == this' evaluates to 0. the GMs are getting this assertion failure a lot, but hugh cannot, even after spending many hours following them around in the game :-(\n"

Poor Hugh. I'd hate to be the one following GMs around for hours trying to track down an intermittent bug. I'm guessing he's an intern.