Ultima Online (1997)
Ultima Online is a 1997 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Origin Systems and Electronic Arts.
Britannia in 1997 held twenty thousand people at once, and all of them could affect each other. Richard Garriott built Ultima Online as a persistent shared world where player economies, player-driven conflict, and genuine social consequences were woven into the foundation. It established the template for the massively multiplayer RPG, demonstrating that a single fantasy world could sustain an entire society. Everything from World of Warcraft to modern survival sandboxes traces a line to what Origin Systems launched in September 1997.
Quick answers
What is Ultima Online about?
Britannia in 1997 held twenty thousand people at once, and all of them could affect each other. Richard Garriott built Ultima Online as a persistent shared world where player economies, player-driven conflict, and genuine social consequences were woven into the foundation. It established the template for the massively multiplayer RPG, demonstrating that a single fantasy world could sustain an entire society. Everything from World of Warcraft to modern survival sandboxes traces a line to what Origin Systems launched in September 1997.
When was Ultima Online released?
Ultima Online was released on 24 September 1997.
Who made Ultima Online?
Ultima Online was made by Origin Systems and Electronic Arts.
Similar games
Explore Ultima Online guides
Ultima Online in our writing
- Companion guide: The Golden Age of the CRPG: 1981 to 1999
- Companion guide: Origin Systems: We Create Worlds
A few thoughts on Ultima Online
Ultima Online's open-world fantasy DNA runs directly through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which pushed the idea of Britannia as a place to inhabit rather than just complete into a singleplayer form. Elden Ring carries forward the community dimension, where shared discovery and player knowledge matter alongside individual skill.
Open worlds you can inhabit rather than complete
Ultima Online didn't have an end. It had a world with weather, economies, and consequences that outlasted any single session. These share that same unhurried invitation to just exist somewhere.
RPGs that changed what the genre could be
UO proved persistent shared worlds were possible. These are the games that carried the same proof-of-concept ambition in different directions.
When choices have consequences that compound
UO players learned fast that actions in a shared world stick. These single-player games replicate that weight: every decision has a downstream cost that can't be undone.
Worlds that resist you on their own terms
Early UO had a full predator economy. Dying meant losing your gear. These games channel the same uncompromising idea that the world owes you nothing.