Richard Garriott is taking off – leaves NCSoft

Well, some pretty shocking news hit the game-iverse yesterday: Richard Garriott, the brains behind the Ultima and Wing Commander series has called it quits with his employer, NCSoft. This is a pretty big deal for many Richard Garriott fans, as he was also the guy behind the futuristic MMO, Richard Garriot’s Tabula Rasa. The man’s name is in the title of the game! And he’s disconnecting himself from it!

That’s crazy talk right there!

In a news letter over at Tabula Rasa’s website, Richard Garriott, AKA General British, wrote an update to his fans explaining his gratitude to everyone, but it’s time for him to start new projects that he apparently would not be able to do while working for NCSoft.

So, what does this mean for gamers? Well, maybe Garriott will get his butt back and gear and make some more Ultima games! The last few were pretty crap-tastic, so there is HOPE he might make things right and end Ultima in a way that would excite tons of fans. But, that probably won’t happening seeing as EA owns the Ultima titles now. It’s a dream, though.

Or maybe he’s going to come up with a completely new and awesome series that his fans will fall in love with again. Let’s just hope it’s not another MMO, because those MMOs are having a tough time against the MMO monopolizer, World of Warcraft. What we need is more original RPGs, dangit!

Only time will tell. But I really hope it’s the Ultima one. I’d die and go to heaven, and then come back to play the game. YES!

[Image courtesy of NCSoft. ]