Ultima X: Odyssey - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ultima X: Odyssey was to be a massively multiplayer computer role-playing game (MMORPG

MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

) based in the Ultima universe, developed by Origin Systems

Origin Systems

Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...

for Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

.

Although scheduled to be released sometime in 2004, EA cancelled the project on June 30, 2004, after the closure of Origin and the layoffs of several employees. Despite being a multiplayer game, UXO was being marketed as a continuation of the Ultima series that was last visited with Ultima IX
Ultima IX
Ultima IX: Ascension is the ninth and final part of the main series of the computer role-playing game series Ultima.Following the Avatar's escape from Pagan, he is transported back to Britannia for one final battle with the Guardian, who is increasingly ruining the physical and moral fabric of...

rather than as a sequel or replacement to the still commercially successful Ultima Online
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...

. Although the "X" in the title is a Roman numeral 10 (in keeping with its place in the sequence of numbered Ultima games), it is sometimes pronounced as the letter "X" instead of "ten."

Ultima X: Odyssey was the first Ultima game developed after series creator Richard Garriott

Richard Garriott

Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...

left Origin, and is the second Ultima-based MMORPG to be cancelled (Ultima Worlds Online: Origin
Ultima Worlds Online: Origin
Ultima Worlds Online: Origin — originally titled Ultima Online 2 — was to be the first sequel to the popular 1997 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Ultima Online...

— Ultima Online 2 — was cancelled in 2001). The game's demise followed in the wake of other MMORPG cancellations in 2004, including True Fantasy Live Online, Mythica
Mythica
Mythica was a never-released massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Norse mythology. It was under development by Microsoft Game Studios for Windows-running PCs until it was cancelled in early 2004...

, and Warhammer Online (which was revived in 2005). EA noted that it would focus development efforts on Ultima Online but the real reason behind the cancellation was the fact that EA decided to move the UXO development team from Austin, Texas to another facility in California. Most of the developers couldn't cope with the move because it would mean they would have to go away from their families and friends in Austin. Since the developers didn't move and EA chose not to give time to the new developer team based in California to figure out the already existent code, it was decided to cancel the debut of the last game of the Ultima Series.

Ultima X: Odyssey was to use the lauded Unreal engine

Unreal Engine

The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...

. As with most MMORPGs, players would have had to pay a monthly fee to play it. UXO hoped to revitalize the MMORPG genre, which many have criticized as being full of EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...

clones. For example, it promised exciting combat as opposed to the "press 'A' to auto-attack" found in many MMORPGs. The fiction stated that after Ultima IX, the Avatar created the new world called Alucinor in which UXO is set. Moongates throughout Alucinor would allow players to traverse the game world quickly and all players would have the ability to teleport their friends to their current location.

Drawing from the single-player Ultima games, Ultima X: Odyssey was to use the established Virtues of Ultima in addition to skills, experience point

Experience point

An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...

s and levels. Players would be able to practice in the eight Virtues (Compassion, Honesty, Honor, Humility, Justice, Sacrifice, Spirituality, and Valor) and eventually reach the maximum level with it. If a player maxed out each Virtue, they became very powerful, attaining the power of the Avatar. This example, provided by EA during development, could help in understanding the Virtue system:

A hooded guy asks you to get his gold medallion back that has been in his family for centuries. He tells you who stole it and where that person could be found. Once you find the thief, he tells you that he only stole the medallion so he could sell it and buy bread to eat. From here you can either be Compassionate by giving him some bread, letting him live, but taking the medallion back; or practice Justice and kill him, taking the medallion to its rightful owner. When you return to the hooded guy who gave you the job, you find out the medallion isn't his, but another person's who got robbed by the foodless guy, and now you can either Honor the agreement and leave with your payment, or be Honest and take the medallion to its real owner, killing the person who gave you the job.

The storyline of the game was meant to pick up right where Ultima IX left off. In the story, the Guardian and the Avatar are now one being, and both the Avatar and Guardian halves are fighting to dominate one another and take control. The game itself would have taken place in a world inside the Avatar's mind (the world was called "Alucinor", which roughly translates from Latin to something like "Wandering in the mind"), and the people in the world were tasked to follow the eight virtues in the hopes of aiding the Avatar in gaining the power to completely defeat the Guardian.

The game was cancelled with a letter to fans on June 30, 2004:

Dear Ultima X: Odyssey community members, As of today, development on Ultima X: Odyssey has ended. We feel that Ultima Online is where we need to focus our online efforts and most of my team will be moving to the UO expansion pack, the UO live team, and an unannounced Ultima Online project. Development on UO will be greatly enhanced as we consolidate our resources behind that franchise. This isn't an easy decision but it’s the right move for the future of all things Ultima, including the community and the team. We look forward to sharing our plans for the future of Ultima Online very soon. I would like to thank all of the Ultima X: Odyssey supporters who have been with us from the beginning. I hope you will continue to support the Ultima franchise and the development team as they transition to new projects. Thank you, David "InQWis" Yee Producer, Ultima X: Odyssey

Despite the letter, no plans of the future were ever shared or officially released for Ultima Online. Expansion packs were released at a later date; however, they made no mention of whether they were actually part of the future plans involved in the decision to cancel Ultima X.

External links

Ultima X: Odyssey official site, showing the cancellation notice by producer David Yee. (No longer active.)
Ultima X on E3 2004
Katixa: UXO - hosts many screenshots of UXO (Spanish)

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See also

External links