The creator of one of gaming's foundational RPG series is taking his copyright back — and a 50-year-old provision of US law means he will not have to pay the current owner a cent.
Richard Garriott told interviewer Jesse Petrilla that when he sold his studio Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in 1992, he set in motion a clock most game developers never notice. Under Section 203 of the US Copyright Act, an author who assigns or sells a copyright can terminate that transfer after 35 years, provided they notify the other party a year in advance. No payment is involved.
"In April of this year, I told Electronic Arts, by the way, I'm going to take the copyrights to Ultima back," Garriott said. "And they wrote back and said, 'Yeah, we know that's the law. We will act accordingly.'" The rights return to him in 2027, and he says he is now in active discussions with EA about whether there is anything the two should do together.
At minimum, the reversion means Garriott could re-release the early Ultima games, the first of which followed his 1979 debut Akalabeth: World of Doom. It also means he could make sequels to the series he supervised across nine main installments, ending with 1999's Ultima IX: Ascension, and whose 1997 Ultima Online helped define the early MMORPG. He has said he would like to reunite with developers who worked with him on the originals, though he has not settled on whether a new title would be a single-player RPG or an MMO.
There is a catch. Copyright and trademark are different things, and EA filed fresh Ultima trademarks in June. Garriott therefore could not simply ship a new game called Ultima; his stated workaround is the title Lord British's Ultima, a nod to the persona he adopted in Ultima Online. Whether the 2027 handover produces re-releases, a sequel, or a partnership with EA is still open.
Garriott's last major project, the crowdfunded Shroud of the Avatar, launched in 2018 to a lukewarm reception and criticism over its monetisation, and its assets later passed to Catnip Games. It has been almost 27 years since a new mainline Ultima.
