Origin Systems

History

By 1983 Richard Garriott had written Akalabeth: World of Doom and the first two Ultima games, but he had trouble collecting royalties from his publishers; a dispute over the IBM PC port of Ultima II was the final straw. That March he founded Origin Systems with his brother Robert, a businessman, their father, the astronaut Owen Garriott, and programmer Chuck Bueche. The company started in the family garage in Houston. Its first game was Ultima III: Exodus, released on August 23, 1983, with tactical party combat and a musical score. Selling computer software rather than console cartridges, Origin came through the video game crash of that year intact.

Origin's next Ultima changed the genre. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (September 16, 1985) removed the villain and asked players to become a moral exemplar by practicing eight virtues. The company also published games by other designers, including Moebius, Autoduel (1985) and Ogre (1986), the last two adapted from Steve Jackson Games' tabletop titles. For some years it ran offices in both New Hampshire and Austin, and by 1988 had about 50 staff between them; Austin became its permanent home. In 1990 Chris Roberts's space-combat game Wing Commander became a second franchise to rival Ultima. The company's motto, "We Create Worlds," was no exaggeration.

The early 1990s were Origin's peak. It published Blue Sky Productions' Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (March 1992), a first-person dungeon in continuous 3D, and Garriott's Ultima VII: The Black Gate (April 1992), whose simulated world let players bake bread and move every object. In September 1992 Electronic Arts bought the company for about $35 million in stock. Under EA it grew past 300 employees, producing Wing Commander III with full-motion video, System Shock (1994) with Looking Glass, and the Crusader games.

Then Origin bet on the internet. Ultima Online, launched with EA on September 24, 1997, offered a persistent Britannia split into parallel "shards" for thousands of players, and reached about 100,000 subscribers within six months. Designers such as Raph Koster and Starr Long built its player-driven economy; its beta test produced the Assassination of Lord British. EA decided Origin should become an online-only studio after Ultima IX: Ascension (1999). That game's poor reception, and EA's cancellation of new projects including Ultima Online 2, led Garriott to leave in 2000. Origin continued mainly to support Ultima Online until EA disbanded it in February 2004.

Notable work

The Ultima series from Exodus to Ascension, the Worlds of Ultima spin-offs, Ultima Underworld, Wing Commander and Privateer, System Shock, Crusader: No Remorse, and Ultima Online.

Legacy

Origin's influence runs through the whole history of computer role-playing games. Ultima IV made ethics a game mechanic; Ultima VII and Underworld pioneered the simulated world that The Elder Scrolls and immersive sims would pursue; Ultima Online proved the market for the graphical MMORPGs before EverQuest. Its alumni went on to lead studios across Austin and the industry, from Warren Spector's Deus Ex to Chris Roberts's Star Citizen. Ultima Online, which outlived its maker, is still running under EA's Broadsword studio.