After the development of Ultima VII, the creators, despite the muffled success that did not correspond to the expectations for such an ambitious project, still arranged a celebration. The team had fun, drank and took a joint photo (which will become a small interesting fact in the future), and later calmed down and settled on the following units, divided into two teams, each of which worked simultaneously on the two games of the series (this is hinted at the mention of Pagan’s – the world from VIII, in various interviews of the submissions even before the release of SI).
But in order to fully understand the future fate of both Origin System and the Ultima series, you need to plunge into the economic situation in America 1992-1993. That segment of history was longer, but this is exactly what this interval is important to us.
The fact is that Origin was little driving herself into a crisis. The problem was, how it was not strange today, in the disketts, or rather, in their quantity and price. At the very beginning of the nineties, they still remained the main software carrier. Yes, CDs have existed since the eighty -second year in Japan and from the eighty -third in Europe and the USA, but it was in the nineties that the large -scale creation of systems adapted for them began. "Origin games demanded a large number of disks – often from eight to ten, which cost about 70 cents apiece". The Strike Commander team required eight floppy disks in 1993, and they joked that it would be more profitable to “ship the game on its own 20MB hard drives”.
Strike Commander
In addition to these, albeit necessary, but high costs, Origin increasingly invested money in their projects: Ultima VII and Wing Commander I and II. But "the high cost of creating Wing Commander consumed all the cash of the company". And some Ultima VII is still considered one of the most expensive projects for those times. And, except for these two, Origin did not have the other in due degree of recruited games, so that the failure of one of the series would have extended Origin.
In parallel, the studio had to periodically sue EA. Once, in 1985, Origin signed a quite profitable contract with Electronic Arts to help in distribution, but they apparently did not like to spread about this and it is easier to find out about this from the records of BruDerbund. But, eighteen months after the signing of the contract, in 1987, Electronic Arts quarreled with the founder of Origin, since their new Deathlord game was too similar to Ultima. During the negotiations, EA refused to cancel and engage in licensing, and their founder/CEO/President TRip Hawkins said “that the tail will not wag the dog”. Richard was so angry that he broke the contract. EA remained unhappy with this, but with the help of BruDerbund, Origin was able to get out by paying a fine.
Deathlord
Subsequently, Electronic Arts filed a lawsuit. Hand of Luck Casino review As one of Origin’s employees stated, the charge was unreasonable. Such was the EA policy – they wanted to win the video market, at one time, by creating good games, but also to prevent competitors from creating good games by interfering in their business. How Trip Hawkins told Origin to the leaders “it’s just a business. In this way we will win."
While Origin’s cash reserves were more involved in more than ever, Apple and Commodore 64 platforms collapsed, taking with them a lot of small retail merchants. As a result, Origin was not able to make a profit from the relevant computers and old games they put up for the sale, but also had to pay debts of bankrupt companies.
Sales of Commodore 64
All this in the compartment badly reflected on the financial situation Origin. But they always managed to fight off such problems through solid and reliable numbers in sales, even if they did not go a plus. And their new flagship series – Wing Commander, gave them hope for something more, because it was several times more successful than Ultima. It was only necessary to survive the beginning of the crisis somehow, and in the future perspective they would stand on their feet again. To this end, Origin decided to borrow money, but … a loan-saving crisis.
The loan-saving crisis is the period of 1986 to 1995 (some sources say that it began with the seventies, but such events have always been blurred), the code of loan and saving institutions simply did not have money, the reason for this was: a sharp jump in inflation in the 70s, a large number of deposits took their funds, a boom of real estate and the subsequent bubble in the market and the list on this one on this onedoes not end. As a result of those events, the Federal Service and Loan Insurance Corporation closed 296 institutions from 1986 to 1989 and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) closed 747 institutions from 1989 to 1995.
Accumulation of losses of insurance and credit companies and Resolution Trust Corporation
In the native state of Origin Texas there was no money for them. “Since half of the state financial institutions cannot borrow money, banks can ignore small businesses in favor of large, safe corporations”. As a result, everything at Origin began to roll down as a clock and they had to look for the publisher.
And, in July 1992, a group of managers entered the Origin office. Surely the atmosphere was tense then. The company’s employees became interested in what was happening at all, but they were reassured that these are just negotiations about a joint venture in the development of Sega Genesis. But many understood, seeing the position of the studio that everything was much more serious. It is believed that the EA visit is due to two reasons: firstly, the Wing Commander series was still popular and probably many wanted to acquire it to themselves, and secondly, the meeting of Origin and EA at the international consumer electronics exhibition 1992.
Richard and Robert Garriots with Stan McCa, financial director of Electronic Arts.
Origin explained the adoption of the agreement by the fact that Electronic Arts was well versed in the game market and the “ability to predict platform shifts”. And their relationship with Trip Hawkins no longer interfered with this decision, since he, although he remained chairman of the board of directors, left and began to work on his new 3DO studio. “If the trip was still there, we would never have gone with EA,” said Origin employee. ". As a result of the transaction, Origin sold 1.3 million shares with an approximate total amount of $ 35 million and in words remained independent, albeit completely belonging to EA. “Robert Garriott continued to act as the president of Origin and became Vice President Electronic Arts, while Richard Garriott continued to work as the creative director of Origin and became the executive producer of Electronic Arts”. Richard also had completely abandoned copyright to the Ultima series. The deal was completed at the EA headquarters in San Mateo, California, September 25, 1992.
Promotions of Electronic Arts shares
According to the management of the studio, at first everything was fine, but according to the statements of ordinary employees, everything was wrong. Six months later, anonymous letters began to appear, which expressed their indignation to EA and their influence, although they still responded to the atmosphere in the studio itself. But there was a man who got into his Wednesday – Dallas Snell. It is already clear from all history that he was a little superfluous in Origin philosophy, since he treated their games only as a product, and EA was an ideal place for him.
Dallas Snell
Nevertheless, Origin fully used the newly acquired budget, which provided them with EA. Almost immediately after the closing of the transaction, another one was closed, for a much larger office premises to which they moved in January 1993. Then they began to fill out the place, expanding their staff from two hundred people to four hundred and increasing the number of simultaneously developed projects and all this in a year. But Origin’s leadership did not show itself from the best. New employees were all inexperienced. For the studio, this was the reason for the pride that they teach new people. But this time there were too many of them and some of the new projects simply closed. Origin’s leadership recognized the mistake that they overestimated their forces. EA began to tighten the nuts in response.
Brian Martin and Sheri Greiner Ray – developers of Arthurian Legends, canceled World of Ultima, made this small memorial after the leadership reported that the project should be completely canceled. Ray herself tells this story: “Before we left that night, Brian lay right in front of our office, and I circled his body with the help of an adhesive ribbon … Like a chalk line … We added the contour of the crown and contour of the sword. Then we drank our door with a black cloth and hung a sign with the inscription: “The king is dead. Long live the king.’… and then a very strange thing happened. The next morning, when we arrived, there were flowers along the contour. As the day was leaving for sunset, more and more flowers appeared … and a candle … And several coins were laid in their eyes … and a poem … It was terrible. This went on for several days, and the altar became more and more. In the end, we were told that we had to remove it because there were media there, and they did not want the press to see him."
From the very beginning of the possession of Origin, Don Mattrick, President of EA Worldwide Studios, was assigned to. Don was familiar with their situation. He is the founder of DistINhet Software, who developed Test Drive and the Hardball series, which EA bought in 1991 for 30 million and renamed EA Canada. At some point, he was appointed President EA Worldwide Studios, and now the Origin leader. And a difficult relationship arose between them. If you believe the Origin employees, then EA openly appointed its favorites among the studios, one of which was considered Origin, and pushed all the rest into the shadow. Thus, they contributed to competition in which some were not averse to behaving vilely. In connection with the tightening of the reign over Origin, Don Mattrick received more power, which he often used. He closed many projects both in the presence of justifications and in their absence, and firmly insisted on compliance with the schedule, even if the frames were too compressed. It is believed that Don deliberately undermined Origin’s work in favor of his Ea Canada. Many adhere to this point because of his policy with Ultima Online, but not now.
