Underworld Ascendant - Interview @ IncGamers

Couchpotato · February 9, 2015

Peter Parrish of IncGmaers interviewed Paul Neurath of OtherSide Entertainment.

IncGamers: In the Kickstarter pitch video [for Underworld Ascendant] you imply that Ultima Underworld was in a publisher’s “deepest vault.”

Paul Neurath: That’s right.

IG: Is there a story behind that? You presumably wanted to do this project earlier, but … is it getting hold of rights, or the name? What’s the story there?

PN: The story there is, when we developed … the original [Ultima Underworld] game was developed by the first studio I had going, which was called Blue Sky Productions. Back in 1990 we started that project, and finished the first one in ‘92.

Origin was the publisher – Origin Systems. Richard and Robert Garriott’s studio. They were independent when we were doing that. Around the time that game was done, I don’t remember exactly, very soon after they were acquired by Electronic Arts (EA.) And so that added a layer of complexity, because suddenly EA had to make decisions about what projects got approved and greenlit and funded and all that.

More information.

CraigCWB · February 9, 2015

Origin was the publisher – Origin Systems. Richard and Robert Garriott’s studio. They were independent when we were doing that. Around the time that game was done, I don’t remember exactly, very soon after they were acquired by Electronic Arts (EA.)

Pretty sure EA bought Origin Systems a month or two after Ultima Online was released, which would have been late 1997 or early 1998. Not really "very soon" after 1992.

EDIT: My bad, I'm thinking of something else that happened to Origin right after Ultima Online shipped:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_Systems

By 1988 Origin had 15 developers in Austin, Texas, and 35 other employees in New Hampshire. In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company for $35 million in stock, despite a dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord. Origin, with about $13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an Initial Public Offering before agreeing to the deal. In 1997, Origin released one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999.

Underworld Ascendant - Interview @ IncGamers

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