Ultima is being reborn as Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, and we've got all the details before the title makes its debut at San Diego Comic Con. A cross-platform, online Action RPG, U4E will be playable on both your iPad and your PC and with friends. Read on to learn why U4E is Britannia reborn for a new era.

Ultima is Forever, and you’d be silly to think it was dead. Ultima IV is being reborn as Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, from a small but dedicated team at BioWare Mythic, with Paul Barnett as the Creative Director. It’ll be cross-platform on your PC (not Facebook) and your iPad and it won’t cost you a penny to play. Oh, and it’s a complete re-imagining of the classic Ultima IV, only this time you can adventure through Britannia with your friends at your back. It’s not quite an MMO, and it’s not quite an offline RPG. But it’s all Ultima, and it’s sounding like something we should all get excited about.

Read all about U4E in Bill Murphy's Ultima Forever: Britannia Reborn for a New Era.

Intresting.. That's about all I can say. I'll wait until I see more. ...Oh, and Bill -  Giving money back to the owner? That's HONESTY, not Justice.. Learn your virtues, man! :)

My kids will love it on the ipad!!!

"It’s not quite an MMO, and it’s not quite an offline RPG" - uhmmm yeah ok

Nice article! I am really excited to see what this is! Ultima VI was my first RPG. It's the game that started it all for me and I love the whole series.

Hail Lord British!

Colour me interested!

Quest for the Avatar was my personal favorite of the Ultima series. I believe that was Ultima 4.

If this is done well I will be all over it! Signed up for that beta the second I saw the link. Can't wait to see how this is done!

Hope springs eternal I suppose.

Bioware knocking out another shallow game play cash shop based game, so EA who are great bunch of advertisers (least they pay enough! amirite MMORPG.com or amirite :D) They really got their act together in how quickly they pull all the potential revenue off an established IP. Can't wait to see another boost in my dividend!

I'm exicited and my son and I can play together on our iPads...lol

I smell a failure here....

"....with Paul Barnett as the Creative Director."

Paul Barnett is also the failure that spawned Warhammer Online, and agreed with GamesWorkshop that "More than two sides is a distraction of interest"....REALLY?

Additionally, the mobile-market is known as a VERY cheap driven game market for cheap thrills and quick bouts of attention snatching. It's NOT meant for MMORPG's. You simlpy do NOT have the control scheme to pull it off.

I can tell you right now it'll be low-budget as hell, and not worth half the money it'll take to develope it.

My two-cents :I

ps: I'd also like to mention that i'm an IOS developer (Mac Mobile Devices) so I know a thing or two about making Mobile products, and games in my spare time. People generally will snatch up anything new under $1.50, and tend to ignore games that have subscriptions (even $1/month subs) or cash shops on the mobile market. I don't see this going well personally.

I threw up in my mouth after I noticed that BioWare is handling this project.

I hope some people get enjoyment from it. Looks like a mockery of the Ultima name as far as I am concerned though.

Originally posted by Kilrane

I threw up in my mouth after I noticed that BioWare is handling this project.

Since Bioware belongs to EA, EA uses the Bioware or Bioware/Mythic tag for ALL of their RPGs now. It doesn't actually mean that anyone on the Bioware team is responsible for this. If anything, Paul Barnett was originally from Mythic.

I'm not one to hate on the mega game producers and champion the indies, because frankly I prefer AAA games, but Bioware has not been the same since being aquired by EA. The Bioware name used to instill thoughts of quality RPG goodness, now it just instills feelings of disappointment and regret.

I'm still waiting for UO to come out in AAA 3D format...................still waiting...

Originally posted by Sizzz

Bioware knocking out another shallow game play cash shop based game, so EA who are great bunch of advertisers (least they pay enough! amirite MMORPG.com or amirite :D) They really got their act together in how quickly they pull all the potential revenue off an established IP. Can't wait to see another boost in my dividend!

Common, probably 1 person original to bioware before the buy out is probablly "checking on the status" of this game once a week...... or any other EA/Bioware title, EA is cashing in on the name, till people finally get it

Ipad (or most other "mobile devices") is not a great platform for quality gaming. I just don't see this as being a great game going forward. And if it plays like most Ipad games the same on my PC, I won't stay interested at all.

I will play it on my tablet as soon as it comes out for Android. I'm happy to see it being developed for iPad but it seems that eventually someone would notice the growing numbers of Android users and develop for us first, or at the same time! :)

"I was able Paul Barnett late last night after he’d flown out to San Diego for Comic Con" <- im sorry Mr Murphy but you really should double check your sentences i figured out what you meant but still you were "able paul"? hehe.

this sounds interesting yet worry some, as they state there are 2 classes and possibly more (for cash only??) while saying its not going to be a FB trashheap like  sims social i cant help feel like this very well may end badly as they might try to do too much to it to make it profitable that it loses any charm it may have had.

lots of old timer players do not like reinvents of their fav titles as most reinvents wind up flops for one thing or another.  mind you i missed out on the UO days as i was heavy intrenched in AoE and C&C, if this game isnt a total cash heavy depent game i very well may try it. (if i ever get my account on EA working for their F2P systems....)

As much as I would love to see Ultima come back...I am extremely skeptical about this game.

First off...this is EA.  EA is bad, we all know this.  I have no doubt that they will somehow screw this up.

Second...Richard Garriott isn't involved in this project, and the man pretty much is Ultima.  I think he even asked to be involved on the project but EA shot him down.

Third...EA has tried to bring Ultima back THREE times, and each time the project self-destructed before ever seeing the light of day.  Once with UO2, and twice with Ultima X (two separate projects).

So yeah...I am extremely skeptical about this.

Ultima as a multiplayer game is an exciting concept. People should be thankful they at least make an attempt at reviving it, instead of letting it completely die off.

Maybe this at least will be a stepping stone for many new players into the world of Ultima. Though wished they'd made it for Android tablets too