Ultima Creator Confirms He Will Soon Get Rights for Series from Electronic Arts
Richard Garriott will casually get it back after 35 years.
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Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima, sold the rights to the series, together with his studio Origin Systems, to Electronic Arts back in 1992 for $30 million. For 34 years, EA owned the franchise, but it will soon change, as Garriott is preparing to, well, simply take it back.
Under the US Copyright Act, creators can terminate copyright transfers after 35 years. For Ultima, the date will arrive in 2027. Garriott informed EA of his decision in April, and the company acknowledged the claim and seemingly agreed to the move, according to the original developer.
"I sold Origin to Electronic Arts in 1992, and there’s a really weird United States copyright law that says if you are the original holder of a copyright and you assign it or sell it to any publisher or any other entity, after 35 years, you can just take it back. There's no money that needs to transfer. All you have to do is tell them a year before you take it back," he explained to Jesse Petrilla.
EA confirmed that it "will act accordingly," so perhaps we'll see a new Ultima soon, maybe even in collaboration with Electronic Arts.
"We’ll figure it out, but I get it back officially in 2027,” he said. “I’ve got most of a year to figure out what that means. But at the very least, it means I could re-release the earlier Ultimas, but it also means I could sequel them," Garriott said.
So, if you need more clarity on who owns the rights to Ultima, it's EA at the moment, but Garriott will take them back next year, if everything goes well. You see, EA filed a new Ultima trademark this June, as reported by The Phrasemaker and the law applies to copyright, not trademarks.
So it looks like Garriott will have the rights to the code, but the brand might remain with EA.
"Lord British's Ultima will regain all the copyrights of my original work," the developer said in June. "What it will become is the next challenge."
It's interesting to see how the series can change back in Garriott's hands. He left EA in 2000, when it canceled all of Origin's new projects, and started Destination Games. He is also a private astronaut, and wouldn't that be a great experience for a new Ultima game?
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