PC · 1999 · Origin Systems · Electronic Arts · Cancelled on 21 March 2001
Ultima Online 2 was to replace UO's isometric world with a 3D one and add steampunk technology to Britannia. EA cancelled it in 2001 for fear it would draw subscribers away from the original game.
Origin Systems revealed in September 1999 that it was developing a successor to Ultima Online, then simply called Ultima Online 2, with release expected within a year or two. It was later renamed Ultima Worlds Online: Origin. The new game was to be set in Sosaria after a cataclysm had fused its past, present and future into a single world, bringing Industrial Revolution and steampunk elements into the medieval fantasy setting. Players would choose from three races: the technologically minded Juka, the magically gifted Meer, and humans. Most significantly, it replaced the original game's ageing isometric view with a competitive 3D engine. The designers also responded to the player-killing that had dominated early Ultima Online by disabling player-versus-player combat by default outside designated arenas, and by emphasising group play over solo advancement. Development stopped on 21 March 2001. Electronic Arts' reasoning was commercial: Ultima Online was still profitable and growing, and the publisher feared that a sequel would compete with it for the same subscribers. EA announced 200 layoffs shortly afterwards, some of them at Origin. About a third of the UO2 team went on to Destination Games to work on Richard Garriott's next online game, Tabula Rasa — which was itself shut down in 2009.
Most cancelled games die because they are failing. UO2 was cancelled because its predecessor was succeeding. In 2001 a subscription MMORPG was a steady source of monthly income, and EA judged that splitting Ultima Online's audience between two games was a greater risk than leaving the original to age.
The decision ended Origin's plans for a 3D Britannia, and the studio itself was closed by EA in 2004.