Origin Systems Bites the Dust

Dyre Straits · Feb 24, 2004, 12:33 PM

Slashdot.com has posted this brief note:

"An anonymous reader writes "Waterthread.org has picked up the following on the studio that brought us the popular Ultima and Wing Commander series: 'Game company Electronic Arts is expected to tell its Austin employees this week that the company will be shutting down Origin Systems, its Austin operations, according to sources. Employees will be offered an opportunity to relocate to California or accept a severance package. Company officials could not be reached for comment. Austin is the #3 location in the U.S. for game development with more than 50 companies making major contributions to the game industry, including game development, publishing, tools and middleware and chips and hardware." The Wing Commander CIC has also posted a epitaph for Origin.""

Slashdot.com

Al_Vampyre · Feb 24, 2004, 03:04 PM

Ultima Underworld was one of the first PC games I bought...a classic!

mkk · Feb 24, 2004, 09:16 PM

If we're really lucky this could mean that Richard Garriot could just maybe acquire the rights to work with Ultima and Wing Commander material. The founder also known as Lord British was surprisingly canned from Origin by Electronic Arts (*spit*) a couple a years ago. It's not too surprising that and Origin without its mastermind would eventually falter. But like most of these companies EA will probably just hoard such resources without doing anything worthwile with it. Better to choke your old customers than to let someone else entertain them...

Feb 24, 2004, 12:33 PM	#1
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,030 Rep Power: 201 System Specs	Origin Systems Bites the Dust Slashdot.com has posted this brief note: "An anonymous reader writes "Waterthread.org has picked up the following on the studio that brought us the popular Ultima and Wing Commander series: 'Game company Electronic Arts is expected to tell its Austin employees this week that the company will be shutting down Origin Systems, its Austin operations, according to sources. Employees will be offered an opportunity to relocate to California or accept a severance package. Company officials could not be reached for comment. Austin is the #3 location in the U.S. for game development with more than 50 companies making major contributions to the game industry, including game development, publishing, tools and middleware and chips and hardware." The Wing Commander CIC has also posted a epitaph for Origin."" Slashdot.com

Feb 24, 2004, 03:04 PM	#2
Al_Vampyre HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Scotland Posts: 1,532 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Ultima Underworld was one of the first PC games I bought...a classic! __________________ "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad" - Brian O'Driscoll - Ireland Rugby Team 2009 Grand Slam winning Captain.

Feb 24, 2004, 09:16 PM	#3
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,383 Rep Power: 120 System Specs	If we're really lucky this could mean that Richard Garriot could just maybe acquire the rights to work with Ultima and Wing Commander material. The founder also known as Lord British was surprisingly canned from Origin by Electronic Arts (spit) a couple a years ago. It's not too surprising that and Origin without its mastermind would eventually falter. But like most of these companies EA will probably just hoard such resources without doing anything worthwile with it. Better to choke your old customers than to let someone else entertain them...