Thoughts, Opinions, Guidance?

[gametec]

Do you guys think or know if Broadsword would sell the rights to UO to an individual such as myself or a small group?

If so, how much is a realistic asking price for a game using 1990’s technology?

If successful, is there any help on here making the game open-source? As in I would buy the game rights and turn over the editing tools and the game to the community. Take down all the Shards and create new shards that redirect to your community driven servers if possible.

 

[gametec]

Finally what channel would I have to go through, who to contact and talk with?

 

[Grimoric]

I would say that it is the owning of one of the longest still running MMORPG that is the main interests for Electronic Art. I don't think that is it a lot of money to make on the game anymore. The copyrights for the series is another aspect. I don't think they would sell just the rights to the online game. They might use the copyrights for projects like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Ultima in the future. I guess that everything has a prize, but on the other hand, wouldn't Lord British buy it back if it was possible. Wasn't he even forced to create "Shroud of the Avatar" sins he wasn't allowed to use Ultima?

 

[gametec]

I am thinking of dropping 5-600k I can go higher but I want to see what is on the table.

 

[Tempus]

Well, if we consider that according to mmo-population.com UO still has about 200K accounts. At 12.99/mo, that translates to a bit north of 2.5 million/mo in revenue. We have no way to determine the operating costs but we know they have about 25 employees, hardware/bandwidth and infrastructure. If we assume a 5% overall margin, that clears them about 1.6 million annually.

Even if the account numbers are half what mmo-population is reporting, I'm thinking you are going to have to dig a bit deeper in your pockets to entice a conversation with them. You (or your partners) should be able to contact Broadsword at their Herndon Virginia offices.

 

[gametec]

Already contacted them... if they reply it will be interesting. I won’t go past 1m, with that said it might be cheaper to hire Voxpire as a consultant and 2 senior level developers at 120k USD a year to replicate the game client into my own vision which will include some features the community wants but focuses less on the cheating and more on the actual stability and expansion. Then have them clean up and possibly recode the server console into more of a professional standard.

I can get the client and the server software done in probably 6-11months this way as these people I hire will be dedicated to the job. After which I plan on open sourcing the project so that everyone can take play on their own terms without worrying about stability and conflicts on both client and server side. I may have the client and server coded to c# using Zane’s client as a base with Spin’s shaders for added water affects
[doublepost=1548285420][/doublepost]Having it all done from scratch would essentially be creating a new game that uses the the UOP and MUL files from the original UO game.

Also it would allow me to fund professional level editing tools as well for the game that would work exclusively for the custom client and server software. It would also allow us to add an infinite amount of art, worlds, animation etc. because the confines of the original game would be gone.
[doublepost=1548285720][/doublepost]Wild Terra tried to accomplish this but failed imo to maintain the aspect ratio of Ultima using the same or similar type of buildings.

If I can get graphic artists on board I could potentially rename the project as an alternative UO type game; all it would take is changing the MUL and UOP extensions and redoing all the graphics. Then Broadsword has no legal standing if you guys commercialize your servers.

 

[Tempus]

I guess I'm at a loss as to why you would willingly spend all that money for absolutely nothing other than a hearty pat on the back. Did you win the lotto and have nothing of real value to invest in? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the gesture, I'm just not sure I see the end game here. There is several instances of 'near complete' client code-bases out there created by a variety of UO Emulator devs over the years and a fairly good start on the server code. I guess all you really need are a few graphics artists to create your own assets and maybe a new file format to keep you from any I.P. challenges and you are nearly there with your own 'thing'.

I'm stumped as to why you'd pony up your cash to shut down a profit generating MMORPG and turn it into a open sourced, zero dollar generating pet project

 

[gametec]

the love of the game...

I basically grew up with this game. This hobby that we all have taken part in and some still are... it’s getting old and cumbersome. The editing tools don’t work quite right, the server console was developed by more developers than I can count which makes a mess of the code, the ServUO core which is the only relevant RunUO-based emulator (because it is still supported ‘minimally’) is not backward compatible with the official game clients, and most people don’t have a clue as to the differences between eras thereby never truly getting an accurate server for themselves; some of it is due to lack of knowledge and a lot is due to not knowing how to go about coding some of the systems in place. I have a theory...

 

[Tempus]

Then God bless you for your endeavors. I do hazard to say if you think the C# server code in ServUO (and RunUO before it) is a mess, I'd imagine the real C++ code isn't going to be much different as they've had many hands in that code over the years. You'll have to keep us in the loop as to how this progresses.

 

[Denjiki]

I agree this would be amazing for the community to get their hands on. On the flip side, without revenue generation or continued investment, UO would not move forward in the same manner as it is now.

RunUO/ServUO community has always striven to be on par with OSI servers in terms of features/content. Even if an "official" free server were established by yourself or someone with the resources, I have a hard time believing even with the community's help that we could maintain regular new major content and expansions.

Either way I'm interested to hear Broadsword's response to this.