Some of you may recall that last week, the Ultima Codex reported on the impending closure of Lord of Ultima, a browser-based Evony clone that cribbed the Ultima name for its branding…and which had little else to do with the series.

But some people are just finding out about the cancellation today…no doubt due to the fact that the official notice of the closure was only posted to the Lord of Ultima site yesterday. (An email was also sent out to those who registered to play the game.)

Lord and Ladies,

Today we bring sad news. It pains us to inform you that the final days of Caledonia are drawing near. While glory has flickered in the heart of this new world, the shadows of the old one have risen to take it back from us forever.
It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you, that on Monday 12th May @ 07:00 UTC we will be closing the gates of Lord of Ultima for good and stopping the service in its entirety.

It is always hard when we are met with such choices and the decision to retire older games is never an easy one. We cannot thank those who have supported us enough, and throughout the years of Lord of Ultima’s existence it has been the pleasure of both past and present developers to have been on this journey with you.

Those of you who still have a balance of in-game currency are encouraged to spend it before the game is shut down on Monday 12th May @ 07:00 UTC and is no longer available for play. Additionally, from now until the closing date will also be disabling the functionality to purchase Play4Free Funds, as well as the ability to register new accounts.

The race to be the final Lords will continue however until the closing date so if you’re already on your way to the end game, you still have your chance to become one of Caledonia’s final victors. Will you end your time in Caledonia as a proud Lord or an honourable warrior fighting until the end?

To discuss this further and for more information please visit this forum thread!

The forum post has some additional information, including a code that can be redeemed by all players to gain access to all four ministers for the duration of the game’s life online. I’m…assuming those of you who’ve played the game know what that means.

I don’t imagine that Lord of Ultima’s passing will be much-bemoaned by the Ultima fandom. Still, I gather it was a very technically competent game, one of the better examples of its genre. And I suppose, in that respect, its loss is something to note.

There aren’t indications, at present, that EA will be releasing the game in an offline form, akin to how Dragon Age Legends was eventually released as an Adobe Air app. This may change in the future, but…personally, I wouldn’t bank on it.