10 Mistakes Video Game Franchises Made TWICE
4. Interfering with Development and Rushing to Release - Ultima 8 and 9
The once legendary Ultima series died a cruel, EA-inflicted death with the one-two punch of Ultimas VIII and IX.
Ultima was the grandfather of Western RPGs, considered one of the founding members of the genre. And for seven games, Ultima would innovate on the formula it established and entertain hardcore gamers across the 80s and 90s.
And then Electronic Arts happened.
Origin Systems' hatred of EA is well documented, some fans even interpret the story of Ultima VII as a satire of EA as a company. And when EA bought Origin in 1992, they proceeded to prove all of their fears correct. The Ultima series was interfered with at every conceivable turn, with meddling executive mandates mixed with brutal release deadlines.
This conga-line of bad decisions resulted in the abysmal Ultima VIII, and Ultima IX, criticised for a slew of decisions that clearly came from higher up than the development team on the ground. These two silver bullets were what finally put down one of the original great RPG series, and shuttered one of the most creative video game studios of its day.