Ultima Online: Greenlit on Steam; Vendor Search Coming Back On
As of at least yesterday, if not earlier than that, Ultima Online has been successfully greenlit on Steam, which means that things are now moving forward between Broadsword Online Games and Valve to get the pioneering MMORPG listed in the Steam catalogue.
As well, according to the latest news on the game’s website, the Vendor Search feature will be (or already has been) re-activated on the Origin and Izumo shards after their normal maintenance cycles. Players should notice the following:
- Improved overall search speed
- Search results now return up to 60 items
- Searches can no longer be canceled
- Customizing houses will remove opted-in vendors from search results for up to 30 minutes
- Upon shards being published with update it will take approximately three hours for the vendor database to update. If you do not find your item please check back after that time frame, After the initial database update all vended item additions/deletions will be available through searches within five minutes.
It can’t just be me, I don’t think, who has noticed that Ultima Online seems to be doing…rather better after the transition of its development team to Broadsword.
I wonder why? Maybe they have more money now for server hardware, or a more confident/empowered staff less afraid of poking at things. Perhaps the new charge required action to give the team purpose and the acquisition some momentum. It could even be the beginning of a slow transition to EA selling the IP entirely, but ensuring first it will be in good hands to avoid mutual shame. Gearing up for competition with SotA? Inflating the value of the brand before making Garriott an offer on the IP? So many possibilities, but it is great to see UO getting more attention from devs.