Ultima is one of PC gaming’s most important cultural touchstones, with Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriot’s roleplaying series blazing trails across numerous genres. The mainline CRPGs received critical acclaim for their rich, dynamic worlds, while spinoffs like Ultima Underworld and Ultima Online were key texts in the evolution of immersive sims and MMOs. Ultima’s influence still echoes through to today, with Ultima 7 being a major inspiration for Larian Studios when developing Divinity: Original Sin and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Yet it’s been a long time since Ultima itself was a going concern. The keys to the series have been in the pocket of Electronic Arts since 1992, when Garriott sold developer Origin Systems to the publisher. While some good Ultima games were developed afterwards—most notably Ultima Online—the series has largely been left dormant by EA, barring a couple of ill-fated experiments like 2010’s Lord of Ultima and 2013’s Ultima Forever. But it’s possible that may soon change, as control of the series could return to Garriott in the near future.
This was reportedly explained by Garriott himself to Inside Games’ Brian Gaar. Recently, EA filed new trademarks related to the Ultima series, prompting Gaar to call Garriott to find out what, if anything, Garriott knew about this. According to Gaar, Garriott stated that he has repeatedly attempted to revive Ultima while the series has been under EA’s purview. “Every decade or so, I tried to work with EA on a revival of Ultima. They always seemed interested enough to start talking, then abandoned talks just as quickly.”
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Now, though, Garriott is reclaiming the copyright to the series back from EA. This is thanks to a rule in US copyright law which allows creators (or their heirs) to reclaim a copyrighted work after a period of 35 years. Since Garriott sold the Ultima rights to EA in 1992, this means he can reclaim those rights in 2027. “And so, I have been waiting… finally, the time has come!” Garriot told Inside Gaming.
The important caveat here is that Garriott is reclaiming the copyright to Ultima, not the trademark. EA still owns that, so Garriott couldn’t make a game simply titled “Ultima”. What he could do, though, is make something with a slightly different name like “Lord British’s Ultima”, which appears to be his plan. “Lord British’s Ultima will regain all the copyrights of my original work,” Garriott said to Inside Games. “What it will become is the next challenge.”
There’s arguably never been a better time for an Ultima revival. Larian and other developers like Owlcat have proved that hyper-detailed CRPGs can be monstrously successful. Whether or not that aligns with Garriott’s plans remains to be seen, however. Garriott may reveal more details at this year’s Dragon Con, which he is attending. By then, he hopes to have “more thoughts together” about what reclaiming the rights to Ultima will mean.
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