Beta + Cancelled Electronic Arts Video Games

Ultima X: Odyssey is a canceled fantasy Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game developed from 2002 to 2004 by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts, exclusively for PC. It was based in the Ultima universe.

Ultima X: Odyssey was officially announced in August 2003, as we can read on Gamespot:

Electronic Arts’ Origin Systems development studio has today announced that the next game in its Ultima series will be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game powered by the latest version of the Unreal Engine. Ultima X: Odyssey will boast a number of features not found elsewhere in the genre, the most intriguing of which is the “Odyssey Adventure System,” which will deliver customized quests to players automatically, and will also allow players to request private adventure zones so they’re not interrupted by uninvited troublemakers.
“Ultima X: Odyssey takes the genre to the next level through its innovative new Odyssey Adventure System, ensuring that players experience a greater sense of adventure and reward from both questing and combat,” said Andy Hollis, vice president and COO of Origin Systems.
Ultima X: Odyssey will feature fast-paced strategic combat in which players’ actions will play as big a part in determining the outcome of a battle as their characters’ strength. Players will be able to choose their level of aggressiveness and a variety of combat styles, and while individual combat will be the most common, rival player guilds will be able to challenge each other to gladiator-style duels in privately created zones.
As they progress through the game, players will be able to customize not only their character, but also their inventory, party, and guild–in ways never before possible. Examples given in today’s press release include players enhancing their weapons and armor using virtue abilities or experience points, and the existence of magic items and weapons that actually gain experience and level up in the same way players do.
Players who manage to master any of the eight virtues in Ultima X will gain the ability to use special powers and, eventually, create disciples for themselves. Upon mastering all the virtues, players will attain the ultimate status of “avatar.”
Ultima X: Odyssey is currently scheduled for release this winter.

The story begin at the end of Ultima IX, when the Avatar (the hero) and the Guardian (the villain) merged together at the climax of their final battle. Ultima X: Odyssey’s story begins with the Avatar and the Guardian struggling for control of the god-like being that they have become. The Avatar is losing this battle and creates the world of Alucinor, a place where adventurers can journey to and learn about the Virtues just as the Avatar did during his travels in Britannia. But, because the Guardian also has great influence over Alucinor, he has created his own minions to thwart any would-be heroes.

In November of the same year, lead designer Jonathan Hanna was interviewed by Gamer.No and shared a few details on some of the upcoming features for the game:

G.N.: With the implementation of Virtues and good vs. evil, will there be any player killing involved, and if so, how will this be carried out in Odyssey?
J.H.: (…) Players can challenge each other to duels that are tracked through a robust ladder system. In addition, guilds can challenge each other to large-scale battles. These battles will take place on private maps, preventing outsiders from interfering with the battle. Also, players can wager gold and items on duels and guild battles, making them even more interesting. Combined with our highly interactive and action-packed combat, PvP in Ultima X: Odyssey will be a blast!
G.N.: What lore, political elements, stories and legends will be a part of Odyssey? In essence, what is going to make us feel that we are actually in an Ultima game, and where in the Ultima timeline is the game set?
J.H.: Everything about this game screams Ultima! From the character races (which include Gargoyles, Orcs, Pixies, Humans, Elves, and Phoda – a race based on the Fuzzies from previous Ultimas) to many of the points of interest, you’ll find plenty of references that hearken back to the Ultima games. More importantly, our entire adventure system is centered around making decisions based on the Ultima Virtues. For example, you might be asked to slay a Minotaur Lord who has been raiding a local farm. When you find him, you learn that his people are starving. At this point, you could demand Justice and fight the minotaurs, or you could show Compassion and help them find a new food source. In keeping with the previous Ultima games, neither Virtue choice is the wrong choice – they’re just different. They will, however, lead you down different paths of the adventure, as well as determine the abilities your character can learn. Eventually, as characters continue to advance they can even ascend to the level of the Avatar, the ultimate fantasy hero!

However, troubles occured in February 2004, when EA took the decision to disband Origin Systems and relocate the team, from Austin, Texas, to Los Angeles, as we can read on Gamesindustry:

Publisher Electronic Arts is reportedly planning to shut down its Origin Systems development studio in Austin, Texas, and is offering staff at the studio the choice of relocation to California or a severance package.
Origin Systems is best known for its work on the classic Ultima and Wing Commander franchises, and the move to relocate the studio’s staff comes as part of a wider consolidation of EA’s development efforts.
The founding of a new development campus in Los Angeles has already seen the Westwood studio being shut down, while the relocation of the Maxis studio to Los Angeles was announced last week.

In June of the same year, Electronic Arts pulled the plug for Ultima X: Odyssey:

Today Ultima X: Odyssey was summarily pulled from the production schedule by publisher Electronic Arts. The game had been on track for a 2005 release, but rumors of trouble had been swirling around the project for some time.
In a post on the official UXO Web site, producer David Yee gave the game an epitaph of sorts. “As of today, development on Ultima X: Odyssey has ended,” he said. “This isn’t an easy decision but it’s the right move for the future of all things Ultima, including the community and the team.”
Yee said the reason for the decision was to “focus our online efforts, and most of my team will be moving to the UO expansion pack, the UO live team, and an unannounced Ultima Online project.” GameSpot was told by another source within EA that no staffers were laid off as a result of today’s decision.
Formerly under the guidance of lead producer Rick Hall, Ultima X: Odyssey went through an evolution when its design and development staff were recently moved from EA’s Austin, Texas, studio to the company’s main Redwood Shores campus. At that time, Hall relocated to EA’s Tiburon studio, and UXO was placed in the hands of Yee.

According to some sources, Ultima X: Odyssey was definitely cancelled during the relocation of staff members from Texas to California, as many of them decided to resign instead of moving homes and families. In 2011, Justin Olivetti wrote on Engagdet:

Reportedly, one of the biggest reasons behind the project’s death was EA’s decision to relocate the Austin, TX team to California, a move at which many devs balked. With the relocation a failure, the game’s development was hobbled and EA felt it had no choice but to give it the axe.

Ultima X: Odyssey wasn’t the first Ultima MMORPG to be canceled. Years prior, EA canceled Ultima Worlds Online: Origin in order to focus on development of expansion packs for Ultima Online.

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Command & Conquer Renegade 2: Battlegrounds [Cancelled – PC]

monokoma

27-10-2021

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Command & Conquer Renegade 2: Battlegrounds is the cancelled sequel to Westwood Studios’ action shooter, planned to be released on PC by Electronic Arts. Development of Renegade 2 started immediately after the release of the first game, and the story was supposed to be set between Command & Conquer and C&C Red Alert 2.

Players would have been able to choose between first person and third person view, with the same action-focused gameplay already seen in Renegade 1. The game was divided into different missions, in which you had to destroy objectives, eliminate enemy troops or find important items.

Unfortunately in 2003 Westwood Studios were closed by EA, the team merged into EA Los Angeles and Renegade 2 was canned due to the low popularity of the first game. At the same time EA also cancelled another C&C project, an online RPG titled Command & Conquer Continuum.

Thanks to Josef for the contribution!

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Psychic Warriors [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

04-09-2021

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Psychic Warriors is a cancelled squad-based, cooperative multiplayer action game that was in development around 1998 by Black Ops Entertainment and would have been published on PC by Electronic Arts. Players would have taken the role of DEA agents with special psychic powers, fighting against a supernatural group of drug lords who are selling a strange new drug on the market. It seems the team was able to create an early playable prototype before the project was canned by EA for unknown reasons.

While the plot sounds like from a low-budget movie, it could have been a fun adventure to play with friends. Psychic Warriors was never officially announced, but a former EA designer shared some memories about working on this lost game and two (tiny) screenshots. If you know someone who worked on Psychic Warriors, please let us know!

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Project Ragtag [Cancelled – PS4, Xbox One, PC]

U64 Staff & Contributors

12-10-2020

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Project Ragtag, a third-person action-adventure game set in the Star Wars Universe, was cancelled in 2017. The game was under development by Visceral Games and planned to be published by Electronic Arts. In the end EA shut down Visceral Games, following the game’s irreversible demise.

Led by former Uncharted series Creative director Amy Hennig, Project Ragtag was an ambitious single-player adventure, focused on a ragtag group of space thieves. While it seemed like a sure-hit for a game that started development in 2013, EA cited dwindling interest in single-player experiences as the main reason for its cancellation.

An interview by US Gamer with Ms. Hennig explained how things went for the project. Henning said the game had been beset by challenges that the whole management didn’t foresee. Additionally Kevin Kiner (music producer of Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels) also shared his thoughts on the project. He mentioned he worked on the game for a couple of years and managed to create a good amount of music for it. Unfortunately it seems these scores can’t be used in future Star Wars projects.

Making a Star Wars game that looks and feels like Uncharted was a big challenge. For instance, Visceral Games had to use DICE’s Frostbite Engine to develop Project Ragtag, which was mostly designed for first-person shooters, not third-person adventures. They had to re-implement lots of code and animations, from third-person platforming to climbing.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to save the project. In 2017 EA officially announced Project Ragtag’s cancellation: though it had bittersweet comments and feedback from the online community, Hennig and the other team members have moved on. For players and fans of Star Wars, it’s sad to see such a promising game fail. The cancellation of Project Ragtag was also a tough experience for the staff who poured their efforts into it.

There’s a lot of cool stuff conceived for Project Ragtag that we will never get to see. However, as everyone says, life goes on. Other Star Wars games are still published every year, such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Star Wars: Squadrons and Star Wars Commander.

Article by Nash Kingston

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Splinter (Stromlo Entertainment) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

04-07-2020

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Splinter is a cancelled Six-Degrees-Of-Freedom shooter that was in development around 1998 – 2000 by Stromlo Entertainment, planned to be published on PC by Electronic Arts. While the game is basically forgotten today, it was quite hyped at the time by gaming websites and magazines, with journalists seeing it as the next Descent mixed with Half Life, offering complex story and interesting game mechanics.

As we can read on IGN:

“When we highlighted this aspect of the game as well as the combination of organic enemies (e.g. wasps) and manmade adversaries (e.g. flying drones) and compared it with similar elements found in Half-Life, Greg Paltra was quick to add his thoughts: “Half-Life was a really great game. We were already well into development when it came out and we had our first look at it. We could really appreciate what it had to offer. Anyone who played Quake or something and then played Half-Life would realize the difference in the world they had created. I think we have tried to do the same sort of thing with Descent or Forsaken — we’ve got their basic game mechanic, but we’ve added the whole richness of the world and a believable story and a sense of character to really bring that genre to life. I think Half-Life really set the standard for what a game should be for the next generation of software that is out there.”

Players would take the role of a US military trying to retrieve a secret weapon called MERC, a sci-fi craft which can miniaturize itself to go undetected in restricted areas. It seems you would also find yourself miniaturized, exploring such places as ants-nests and shooting down huge insects. As we can read on IGN:

“Splinter is set in present day Blount Island, Mississippi at a secret government laboratory that is home to The Roanoke Project. It is a highly classified attempt by military scientists to perfect the science of nanotechnology and miniaturization. Research has led to the development of molecular robotics, self replicating manufacturing systems and the crowning glory, the Micro Emergency Response Craft now known simply as The MERC. It is a craft with the most advanced weapon systems ever produced and it can be miniaturized to the size of a quarter. Its ability to penetrate the most secure facilities ever devised has made it the most valued piece of military hardware on the planet. One little problem has come up though… it’s missing. “
“The cinematic background and relationships of Stromlo are very obvious in the character driven storyline but perhaps is most visible through the cinematic cutscenes that appear throughout the game. The movie scenes are done completely in CGI by visual effects house Animal Logic. The Sydney based company has worked in television and film with credits including The Thin Red Line and The Matrix.”

“Across the five levels, there are between 5 and 10 sections within each mission. The environments vary a lot, from very organic environments like the ant’s nest to man made environments like munitions factories. The diversity in the architecture, lighting and even the gameplay changes across each mission and within each mission. It’s something that people have responded to very strongly. We’ve got very favourable reports especially compared to something like Descent and some of the other games that are out there where its all been seen and it’s all been done and I think what we’ve got is very new and it’s very diverse within its own content.”
“The range of weapons gains some flexibility with secondary fire for all of your armaments. You start with a basic mini-gun that has a secondary fire like a shotgun all barrels fire together. The strategy of laying a stream of fire into an approach ant followed up by a close-up all barrel blast seems like fun. Other weapons include a heavy cannon, rocket launcher, grenade launcher and flamethrower. The secondary fire of the flamethrower (a big fire ball) and the rockets were probably our favourites in terms of visuals and ant killing mayhem. “
“There will be no floating weapons, or powerups in the game at all. Resources will be collected from organic and man made sources using the ‘Resource bot’. Organic sources such as fungi or dead insects can be converted into fuel for the flamethrower. Man made enemies may have ammunition you can use as well. Your prototype MERC is also fully equipped with all the weapons you will need in the game ¿ however the weapon system has been code locked by Trilling. You will need to link with other crafts you down to upload the codes to unlock your weapons. “

The team was also working on another game for EA, titled “Hydra”, which was also canned in early development:

“We were very lucky that Tony had an existing relationship with EA and we were fortunate at the time that EA Australia were looking to do some work with Australian developers so we had an introduction which led to a co-publishing deal for our first two projects. Stromlo’s second title Hydra will be based on a completely new engine and it will also have a strong focus on characters. It will be a different sort of game. We’ve done quite a bit of work on the new engine and some preliminary work on the concepts and characters but we’re really not ready to talk about it — you’ve really got to get your first one out there and keep your focus on that!”

Unfortunately EA killed the team when pulled the plug on Splinter, as we can read on PC Powerplay magazine (issue 054, 2000)”

“Melbourne-based developer, Stromlo Entertainment, has closed its doors following EA’s withdrawal of financial backing for the Descent-esgue shooter, Splinter. EA allegedly felt that Splinter too closely resembled Forsaken, which sold poorly worldwide. Despite the fact that Splinter was nearing completion, EA pulled the plug, forcing the company to undergo liquidation. Several former Stromlo employees have now moved on to other local companies including Auran and Blue Tongue.”

We don’t know how much of the game was completed before the cancellation, but we can hope someone could find a playable proto in the future as it looked like it could have been a cult-classic if only released.

Thanks to jackgrimm99 for the contribution!

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