Ultima Forever Quest For The Avatar Official Trailer and Platform Information!
Big news today for Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, with the release of the first official trailer.
We want to thank all of you for the time you sacrifice in checking our page and awaiting news regarding Ultima Forever’s release. We are extremely honored to have such amazing fans.
We are very proud to inform you that Ultima Forever will be released this spring!
Please accept our thanks and enjoy the new trailer:
The trailer starts with a brief voiceover by the gypsy, beckoning the player to Britannia. It gives a great overview of the graphics, but is perhaps a little heavy on combat. If you look closely, you can see glimpses of the conversation system and a conversation with Lady British. There are also a few glimpses of gameplay from within towns and socializing with other players. Welcome back to Britannia everyone!
Finally, there is the ominous warning, “The Black Weep is rising.” Could this explain the recent change to the Ultima Forever Facebook page? And perhaps offer a clue to the game’s antagonist?
There is also considerable discussion regarding which platforms Ultima Forever will be released on, with the trailer stating “Coming soon to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch”.
There have been a lot of questions regarding platform support and we would like to clarify our intentions. We had been planning a simultaneous launch on both PC/mobile and went into Alpha on both systems. Mobile scored higher in testing and so we doubled our efforts on iOS to expedite release. After the iOS launch, we will focus our efforts on bringing the game to other platforms. We will confirm exact dates for Android and other platform releases later this year.
Despite this reassuring news, I still find this post a little bit disappointing. I’ve been an avid PC user and gamer for many years, and I neither own, nor can I afford, a second platform. I believe many fans were led to believe this would be primarily a PC game, and I’m hoping the PC release is not significantly delayed.
I am intrigued by the concept of the Black Weep. I know nothing about it, but I’d be intrigued by the presentation of the evil in Britannia as a force of nature, or a creeping fungus. Instead of fighting a big baddy, ala. Ultima I – III and IX, the player was forced to combat an evil inherent to the world itself. We shall see.
It is very disappointing indeed… I signed up to Beta hoping to get a glimpse of this game and maybe even help iron out kinks… and it looks like Beta is not happening any more…
Not the first time I’ve been let down by EA and likely not the last.
Fail on several levels. And they have been deleting almost all of the negative comments on their fb page since this announcement. Oh well, guess its back to Exult…
Alpha was done on the PC, and I don’t see any significant changes that would indicate that a PC version would be significantly behind an iOS release. Honestly, releasing PC and iOS in tandem (or at least within a short span) is the only way to keep a project like this alive. The PC version will have to be revamped slightly, to be distributed through their Origin service, so a delay could even be expected.
I do agree that having the gameplay focus on raising virtues, and on a force rather than a “big bad”, makes this a great title. The graphics are not impressive, yet I don’t think they need to be for a platform RPG. I do with the video would have been less combat and more conversation, virtue choices, and showing off the shrines and other cool art assets.
The team working on U4E is pretty small, and Mythic recently re-organized into a mobile-facing studio. I can see how work on the PC version might have fallen by the wayside for a few months in the rush to smooth out the iOS port.
We’ve known for some time that iPad will be the launch platform, so the news that it will be coming to iOS isn’t really surprising. What IS rather surprising is that it will be coming to iPhone and iPod Touch as well…previously, this was not the case.
And hey…if they want to spend a few more months getting the PC version just so, then what’s wrong with that?
I am all for making sure the game is done right and finished. On the last facebook post by them they said that they were planning a “simultaneous launch on both PC/mobile”.
This kind of ruins the idea they were going to release it on Ipad first.. But also the fact they refer to it as Mobile on the post and not iOS..
The main thing that bugs me is the fact they are trying to “expedite release”. Should they not hang fire get everything working together before releasing the game at only a small % of its capacity?
The game will be made or broken in its first couple weeks and by restricting its player base they have hit themselves with a very big disadvantage before they have even started….
Launching a high-end RPG on iOS isn’t exactly going to restrict their player base (lots of people using iOS devices)…and could open up Ultima to a lot of new players too.
Very disappointing considering the alpha was done on the PC. It played in a tiny window which screamed Facebook/mobile game.
Well, I’ll be playing Drakensang Online when it finally launches for a proper platform. Maybe give it a look then…
I own an iPad, it’s a really neat device and all, but it’s utterly useless for games. You can’t play anything action based due to the lack of physical feedback and point&click based games are just uncomfortable to hold. You will break your own spine while holding the iPad on your lap. I tried a few free games/demos and qickly uninstalled them, even if they were any good it wouldn’t have been a fun experience. Maybe it works better on smaller devices, at least when your finger isn’t covering one fourth of the screen.
I am puzzled by the decision to target the IPad first. I have to think that there are still way more (like by an order of millions) people playing games with (or at least access to play games with) a PC than with an IPad.
I don’t know…I’ve played and enjoyed several RPGs on the iPhone, and a couple of free-to-play MMORPGs on my Android tablet.
I’m really real,y surprised now.
Not so much at the ‘ios launch only’ but at the negativity here and especially on facebook. I’m still seeing a lot of critical posts on fb, so I call bs on them deleting posts, except for really bad ones.
Mostly it seems to be people angry of not being able to play it first. Woha, tooooo bad, get over it and look beyond that shock. The trailer doesn’t look much different to what we saw in the alpha and it was said some time ago, that it would be a cross platform thing..,
Yes, it would have been nice to play it on PC first but I definitely look forward to playing it on the ipad. And so far it seems that iOS is still way more successfull at games than android, so I can’t fault them for going for iOS first. Even though iOS has the smaller user base it still pays off more to be on iOS since supposedly the iOS users spend more money on games and such.
And to be fair, questions about user base only speak to part of the equation. Android does have a larger user base, but that is because a large number of different Android versions, some full-featured and some stripped-down, are available on a wide range of devices ranging from low-end units to high-performance superphones and tablets. iOS, on the other hand, is available on a narrow range of devices and, thanks to Apple’s rather brutal methods where forced obsolescence is concerned, in only a narrow range of versions. Apple also exerts tight control over the hardware of iOS devices, most of which are considered high-performance within their generation.
So while it’s true that Android has the larger install base and user base, it isn’t necessarily true that more Android devices than iOS devices have the necessary hardware and OS version to run Ultima Forever…or, at least, to run it well. I don’t expect that all iOS devices will be supported; my money is on the iPad Mini being the bottom end of what is supported in terms of processing power, graphics support, and RAM. And Apple gives developers pretty powerful controls as to which devices the game will and won’t be made available to via the App Store.
And yes, iOS users do tend to spend more on games than Android users. Which, granted, isn’t a HUGE consideration for what is still, apparently, going to be a free-to-play game, although presumably those stats extend to in-app purchases as well.
It’s true – they are deleting posts from their FB page, and the choices for deletion seem to be all over the place. I had a post deleted stating that it was a real shame that EA/Mythic, for whatever reason, seems to have forgotten just who it was that’s paid the bills, in regards to anything Ultima, since the mid-80’s. Not only was it deleted, but they also blocked my ability to post anything else.
You will all have to forgive me, but it was the new Ultima Producer that came to the UO fansites making a big deal about this, and not us that hunted him down. I shouted down more than a few people saying it was a waste of time/energy over on UOF. Now I feel like not only do I owe them an apology, but that I, and we, have once again been trolled b EA/Mythic.
Screenshot or it didn’t happen. I’ve seen this too often on facebook threads than to believe this right away:
B posts: bla bla don’t like it you are abandoning all you stand for bla bla
Five or ten posts further down:
B posts: hey you … Why are you censoring my posts?
It’s kind of hard to screenshot a deleted post, so if you’re asking for proof of a negative, it’s simply not going to happen. If you’re asking for proof of something more, you’ll have to be more specific.
Personally, I’ve got better things to do in life, like helping to moderate a set of forums dedicated to multiple things Ultima, and working on a fan page dedicated to a game that, since I don’t own an iProduct, I won’t be able to enjoy, despite promises to the contrary, then coming to another fansite to lie about something multiple others have already reported on.
You won’t be able to enjoy it this Spring. But there will be a PC port, and likely an Android port as well. So you won’t be unable to access it (heh) forever.
so it never happened 🙂
(when I post something like that on facebook, I make a screenie all the time of the successfull post)
Photos, with 2 forms of photo ID and a long form birth certificate, or this, and you, never happened…
See how ridiculous that comment can become?
The difference being that a goodly number of people can produce 2 forms of photo ID — or one piece of photo ID and sufficient corroborating evidence as to constitute a second piece of positive identification. Indeed, it’s quite common for people to have as much, and exceedingly uncommon to encounter a person who does not.
Indeed I could hand you a photo of !three! forms picture IDs and a long form birth certificate !AND! a screenshot of my posts to the U4E facebook page. So, yes, I can quite see how ridiculous your (Guidos) comment was.
Just saw this.
Kenneth, you guys are being jerks, not believing him. This blog isn’t known for being a troll Mecca. If somebody tells you something, you should give him the benefit of the doubt.
I’ve been trying to be cautiously optimistic about this new Ultima since the tease and build-up over the past year or so. The gameplay makes it look like a Diablo slash-fest clone and it’s only being released (for now, I guess?) on a platform I don’t own.
Welp.
An Ultima game without Richard is just a fan game… even if that fan happens to work for the company that owns the IP. I don’t like the release plan, the art direction or the ARPG approach. But despite all that, I’m open to the possibility of it being a fun play. If a PC port happens, I guess I’ll find out… as long as it’s under $10.
Ultima Underworld was a fan game?
Ultima Underworld 2 was a fan game?
Serpent Isle was a fan game?
Garriott wasn’t directly involved in the production of any of these games, after all…the first two were made by a different studio under the supervision of Warren Spector, and the third was made by a different team at Origin under the supervision of…er…Warren Spector as well.
According to his Wikipedia page, he was credited as the Director of UW/UW2 and the Creative Director of SI.
UF is the second Ultima game that I know of with zero RG involvement — the first being Lords of Ultima. I stand by my comment. 🙂
And I by mine…his involvement in these games was essentially an “in name only” thing, especially the two Looking Glass-produced games. He was the head cheese of Ultima at Origin, so naturally he’s going to have his name on an Ultima project produced during his time in that role. But in terms of actually stepping in to affect the direction of development at Looking Glass? Forget about it…it was Paul Neurath’s show, with Warren Spector serving as the main liason back to Origin and the overall producer of the Underworld games.
Garriott may have been slightly more involved in Serpent Isle, but even there it’s well known that the game was mostly Spector’s show, with Sheri Graner Ray and Bill Armintrout handling the lion’s share of its design.
Molecule, as a tangential question…what is your opinion of Ultima 9?
The source link doesn’t work anymore, but on the Wikipedia page of UW: “While Origin CEO Richard Garriott helped the team in fitting the game into the Ultima franchise…”
Look, I understand your point. Maybe his involvement in UW was limited to some high level creative meetings. Those were great Ultima games that were developed by colleagues or business partners of Origin. But you cannot compare Ultima Forever or Lords of Ultima to those efforts — and the biggest reason for that is the ABSOLUTE lack of RG’s involvement.
Therefore, fan game. 🙂
Ultima IX? I was a great technical effort, but a very disappointing ending to the main Ultima games. IIRC, RG’s involvement was minimal compared to the earlier games.
Actually, Garriott’s level of involvement in Ultima 9 was significantly high…he re-wrote much of the story (the shipped story is mostly his own), and also got into the nitty-gritty of coding and development proper. He was heavily involved in Ultima 9, much more so than with Ultima 8.
And yeah, his involvement with Ultima Underworld was basically talking with Paul Neurath about where in the lore of the series to date Looking Glass could fit their ambitious new game. He didn’t contribute materially to the story of the game or its sequel, and wasn’t involved in the development at a technical level. And he was about as “hands off” with Serpent Isle. The Underworlds, especially, were arguably “fan games” by your definition, and Serpent Isle narrowly escapes it for having been made internally, at Origin.
It’s worth noting, too, that Garriott has met with members of the team at Mythic…and though he hasn’t seen the game, he has heard some details about it, and has given his approval for a Lord British cameo in it. Arguably, Ultima Forever thus has only slightly less involvement from Garriott than the Underworld games did. Furthermore, it’s arguable that Mythic are the functional equivalent of an Origin partner, or what would pass for as much, since they’ve been caretaking Ultima Online for a while now.
Now, we can move the goalposts around a bit more so that Ultima Forever fits your definition of a “fan game” while the other cited examples do not, or we can just go with what you said initially: you don’t like aspects of what you see in the game, end of story. Because that’s really the larger point…Ultima Forever doesn’t fit your conception of what an Ultima should look like/seem like/whatever.
And that’s fine. But don’t presume to attempt to define what does and doesn’t constitute an Ultima fan game versus an actual Ultima game using dubiously flexible criteria. It’s okay to dislike the game, say as much, and just leave it at that.
All that said, there’s no question that the folks making Ultima Forever are big Ultima fans, and since they are making an Ultima game, I suppose that the label “fan game” is appropriate in some respects.
The only reason the label “fan game” isn’t 100% appropriate for UF is because EA owns the IP.
Muddying the waters with UW/SI doesn’t change the facts… RG *was* involved with those games. You can argue to what extent all day long, but he, at the very least, took efforts to make sure they fit into the overall Ultima timeline, agreed to stamp them with the Ultima name, and took some credit as Director or Creative Director.
George Romero lost the rights to “Night of the Living Dead” a long time ago… but just because any fan with a camera and a gallon of fake blood can remake “Night of the Living Dead” doesn’t make it “official.” It just makes it a fan film that is taking advantage of the copyright status. Good intentions or not, this is pretty much what EA is doing.
Good for EA and their new official Ultima title. But, sorry, I’m not accepting “Lady British” as canon just because Paul Barnett had to figure out a way to work around not being able to use “Lord British”.
So call me a purist, but don’t make it sound personal by accusing me of using “dubiously flexible criteria.” It’s pretty cut and dry to me even if you don’t agree.
Geez I completly missed tihs debate :P.
Wikipedia is giving BS as often.
Richard Garriott’s involment was so minimal in UW2… he isn’t even in the game’s credits.
As for his role in Ultima IX he was anything but minimal : he was the Project’s *Director*. So this was basically his baby – this was the Ultima game in which he was the most involved since Ultima VII.
And regarding Ultima Forever’s canon… well it’s a separate timeline. So of course Lady British isn’t canon as far as the core series is concerned, it’s a different beast altogether.
I’d rather have a good fan game (Lazarus, U6P) than a crappy official one.
I’m disappointed in the release platforms. And last I heard, the game will launch with only one class (of the 8).
But nothing in that trailer demonstrated that this is an Ultima game, let alone worth my time in any way.
Should be at least two classes at launch, and last I heard they were racing to get the third (Druid) ready as well.
Of course, this means that the PC and Android versions will launch with more classes available from the get-go, rather than have these added to them over a series of updates. Advantage: PC and Android players, really…they could potentially have a wider range of options, and thus not be so locked in to the development of a particular character from the more limited subset.
A few simple observations.
75% of the people I know and work with in the age ranges of 19-45 have and iPhone.
90% of the people I know and work with in the age ranges of 19-45 have an IOS device.
95% of the people I know and work with in the age ranges of 19-45 have a Facebook account.
25% of the people I know and work with in the age ranges of 19-45 are avid PC gamers.
I know this and I guarantee that EA do also. I believe by just with simple observations above the reason these games are going where they are going are pretty obvious.
I don’t think we can prejudge this game, or any, until we have played them. It is not necessary to have a BlueRay disc full of 1080p highres textures to install onto a PC to enjoy a good game.
I wish U4E the best, and if they will be able to push major tweaks to this game to tailor it to the eventual user base they do end up with in a short period of time, then it should do quite well.
AA
…and another one.
Hopefully the last for a bit. Akismet has caught a few since…it would seem it has this latest bot fingerprinted.