Some of these articles may in fact have been mentioned previously on the site here; I’m not entirely sure. Still, they were sitting in my Pocket queue, so I’m going to post them here anyway:

VG247: Ultima Forever set 21 years after Ultima IV

Contrary to earlier reports, it’s not a direct remake of Ultima IV, but takes place 21 years after the events of the classic RPG.

“Ultima 5, 6, 7, 8 haven’t happened yet. Lord British is among the stars; he’s no longer there. Lady British has now taken the throne and we’ve found that one Avatar isn’t going to do it this time round, we need multiple Avatars and multiple people coming to try and repair the land,” [lead desiner Kate] Flack explained.

Blistered Thumbs: “Ultima Forever” Coming to Tablets First: Details Revealed about the New Game

[Lead designer Kate] Falk revealed that the game would be developed for and released on the iPad and other tablet devices first before other devices and make use of the virtual keyboards, but not virtual joysticks or buttons. The multiplayer RPG will also be set 21 years after Ultima 4 and feature the flattened isometric view that became associated with later games like Ultima 7, though there will of course be higher resolutions and some conveniences that weren’t around back in the day, like an improved conversation system and questing system. The virtues have also been incorporated, both in how players react to NPCs and how they react to other players, which will improve or damage their status as the Avatar.

This sounds more like wishful thinking or speculation to me; has there been actual confirmation that the iPad will see the game before the PC does? I’m leery of trusting a source that can’t even spell Flack correctly.

GamePlanet: The leading platform for Ultima Forever is the iPad

Although it will eventually move to other platforms, Ultima Forever is being developed for iPad first, says lead designer Kate Flack.

“All these tablet devices, there’s something very personal about picking up the game, and touching the screen to make things happen in the game,” said Flack.

Yeah, I’m still not seeing confirmation there.

The Ancient Gaming Noob: Ultima Forever! Will Lord British Find his Fondness for EA Diminishing?

…just in case you thought that EA was only pissing in Garriott de Cayeux’s cornflakes with the whole “Lady British” thing quoted at the top of the post, they also seem to be intent on breaking some key aspects to the old game by introducing class choices up front rather than having the game select your class based on your sense of the eight virtues. (Which did, I admit, essentially become “picking your class” once you figured out what was going on. But the first time it was a mystery!)

Panda App: Boom! EA Annouced A Cross Platform Online ‘Ultima’ to iOS

Ultima Forever is a throwback to classic Ultima games, with mechanics grounded in Ultima IV. Starting as either a fighter or a mage (a druid and paladin class are coming later), your hero sets out on a quest to become the Avatar, a person who embodies what are known as the eight Virtues. Using a Baldur’s Gate-like isometric perspective, you’ll guide your hero either alone or with friends through hours and hours of quests, battling it out with monsters and making hard choices until your character embodies the virtues and reaches the end-game dungeons. Once you beat it, becoming the Avatar, you then start a new game plus, playing through all the content again on an even harder setting.

GameRant: BioWare Announces ‘Ultima Forever’

Any announcement of a new game bearing the Ultima name will be met with heavy skepticism, as past projects attempting to do the same have, generally, turned out to be more a disappoint than a reboot. That being said, BioWare putting their weight behind a free-to-play version of the original game whose name seems to imply they’re in it for the long haul is a good thing. Sure, EA and BioWare may not have earned more positive word-of-mouth than negative lately, but the studio has claimed to have learned from their mistakes.

Destructoid: EA and BioWare announce new F2P RPG Ultima Forever

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be waking up in 2012 to news of a new Ultima game. But lo and behold, EA and BioWare have just announced a brand new entry in the series: Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar.

The action RPG will be free to play, and will be released for the PC and iPad platforms, allowing for cross-platform play (neat!). Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder of BioWare, explains a bit about the project, stating, “With Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, we’re excited to give gamers the opportunity to play a high quality game with their friends anytime, anywhere, on both iPad and PC.”

Oh, and NeoSeeker has launched an Ultima Forever forum, if you’re interested. But why would you be, when there’s this one right here?

Massively: Ultima Forever opens the doors to Druids

The as-of-yet unrevealed class is a Druid, who will take her place alongside the Mage and Fighter. “She’s an interesting one,” Skalski said, “but unfortunately at this time we like to hold back on the details behind her for a little longer. I will however say there will be five additional classes beyond these three that we plan to launch every few months following launch.”

Softpedia: Electronic Arts Bets on Freemium on Home Consoles

Nick Earl, who is the senior vice president in charge of the interactive division at Electronic Arts, has stated, “The future is not about one-time payments, the future is about freemium. A decent number of people convert to paying and they may not pay a lot but most of them actually pay more than you’d think.”

At the moment, freemium is already well established on the PC and on mobile devices, but the console market is still dominated by packaged goods sale.