''Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar'' was a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

, cross-platform,

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and Role-playing video game, role-playing game genres. Definition Action role-playing games empha ...

developed by

Mythic Entertainment Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was an American video game developer based in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role ...

and

Escalation Studios Bethesda Game Studios is an American video game developer and a studio of ZeniMax Media based in Rockville, Maryland. It is best known for its action role-playing franchises, including ''The Elder Scrolls'', ''Fallout'', and '' Starfield''. Bet ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

. It was formally a part of the ''

Ultima Ultima may refer to: Places * Ultima, Victoria, a town in Australia * Pangaea Ultima, a supercontinent to occur in the future * ''Ultima'', the larger lobe of the trans-Neptunian object 486958 Arrokoth, nicknamed ''Ultima Thule'' Companies and ...

'' series. Information was previously released by BioWare in mid-2011 and more information was released on July 11, 2011. It was officially announced at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

on July 12, 2012 and it was fully released for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

on August 7, 2013. The game was shut down on August 29, 2014.

Gameplay

The game was based upon ''

Ultima IV Ultima may refer to: Places * Ultima, Victoria, a town in Australia * Pangaea Ultima, a supercontinent to occur in the future * ''Ultima'', the larger lobe of the trans-Neptunian object 486958 Arrokoth, nicknamed ''Ultima Thule'' Companies and ...

'', but was considered by Mythic to be an "action role-playing game". ''Ultima Forever'' included both online play with a group, as well as a single-player mode. Unlike Ultima IV, there was a Lady British character instead of

Lord British Lord British, or Lord Cantabrigian British, is the fictional ruler of Britannia, a kingdom in the fictional world of Sosaria, created by Richard Garriott for his video game series ''Ultima''. Concept and creation ''Ultima'' series creator Richa ...

. This was due to

Richard Garriott Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (''né'' Garriott; born 4 July 1961) is a British-born American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer ...

retaining the trademark rights after he left Electronic Arts. Mythic emphasized that the

Virtues A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is valued as an end purpose of life or a foundational pri ...

from the Ultima series would play an important part. ''Ultima Forever'' featured a top-down

isometric The term ''isometric'' comes from the Greek for "having equal measurement". isometric may mean: * Cubic crystal system, also called isometric crystal system * Isometre, a rhythmic technique in music. * "Isometric (Intro)", a song by Madeon from ...

point of view, with "hand-painted backgrounds and 3D characters."

Development

On March 31, 2011, an image of a presentation given by Paul Barnett was leaked. The official

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account became active on April 4, 2011, and was discovered by the ''Ultima'' community at the end of May 2011. The official website was registered on March 17, 2010 and went live on June 2, 2011. On June 11, 2012,

General Manager Eugene Evans revealed at the Develop Conference that a new free-to-play online was going to be announced on July 12, 2012. Later that day, the official

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page became active, and the official website was updated to a new design, with a brief description of the game, and a link for Beta applicants. Paul Barnett revealed on Twitter that the game would be announced at

Reception

Reception for the game ranged from mixed to negative. Most reviewers criticized the microtransaction system used.

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

gave it a 6 out of 10 rating.

Touch Arcade ''TouchArcade'' (stylized as toucharcade) is a mobile games journalism website. It was launched in 2008 as a sister site of ''MacRumors'' by its founder Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson. ''TouchArcade'' also hosts a forum and a weekly podcast. I ...

gave it three out of five stars.

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

gave it a rating of 2 out of 10, calling it 'a game built for idiots, a Cow Clicker with a beard'.

References

External links

Official site

Official Facebook page

Ultima Forever Twitter

Official Press Release at UltimaCodex.com
{{Play4Free Role-playing video games Free-to-play video games IOS games IOS-only games Mythic Entertainment games Ultima (series) 2013 video games Inactive massively multiplayer online games Products and services discontinued in 2014 Video games developed in the United States