Why was Ultima Online 2 cancelled?

[krackato]

I noticed at Gamers.com that they're going to release a sequel to Ultima Online called Ultima X: Odyssey.

http://www.gamers.com/news/1448619

This just got me thinking, why the hell was the original Ultima Online 2 cancelled in the first place? And why has it taken so long to announce this Ultima X sequel when the whole mmorpg genre which Ultima Online basically invented has gone through so many permutations already?

Talk amongst yourselves.

 

[krackato]

Anybody?

 

[JellyBaby]

Because the Bean Counters at Electronic Arts had approximately the same sense as the things they counted for a living. EA is a big, dumb company. They've made many stupid mistakes and will continue to make them unless the world's Bean supply disappears.

At the time that decision was made, IIFC, EA was in "financial straights". For EA that meant the suits were protecting their yearly salaries at all costs. That was paramount. In a nutshell (Beanshell?), they feared UO2 would cannibalize UO1's player base and thus hurt their bottom line. Plus they wanted to cut expenses (online games being very expense to develop) to ensure a certain profit line.

 

[Aznmask]

who care about.. UO2.. hehe no offend. czu World of Warcraft is out later, Final Fantasy XI online, and Lineage 2.. !! man i can't wait for that moment!

 

[JellyBaby]

Care because history often repeats itself, young padawon.

 

[VicodiN]

World Of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI Online, Matrix Online, LOTR Online - and youre worried about UO?! C'mon maaaaan!

 

[Lonyo]

The Unreal engine looks to be pretty damned versatile, powerful and liked by quite a few people.

 

[Aznmask]

check this game...
www.lineage2.com

it is a MMORPG using unreal engine.

 

[oLLie]

Originally posted by: Aznmask
check this game...
www.lineage2.com

it is a MMORPG using unreal engine.

It looks nice... but I heard Lineage sucked. I bet their whole subscriber base was just korean fanboi's, this one might be the same.