UO2 Cancelled

March 21, 2001 2:25 PM

According to Quarter to Three (thanks Blues News), Electronic Arts has cancelled the Origin MMORPG Ultima Online 2. This is what they are saying

Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of OWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating OWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online's 230,000 loyal subscribers. In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.

The Third Dawn addon they mention went gold recently and adds 3D models to replace sprites from the original game.

update Jack - Apparently their decision to "put those resources into growing and improving the core" involved laying off between 80 and 120 people at Origin.