Origin Systems. Iconic gamedev studios of the 90s that vanished
Table of Contents
What we remember them for: Ultima, Wing Commander
Years active: 1983–2004
Origin Systems' – ekhm – origins are a typical American dream, a from-zero-to-hero type of story. The company, founded by the Garriot brothers and their father, an astronaut and programmer, Chuck Bueche, started out in the family's home garage. A few years later, it employed over 50 people in two offices, and the total sales figures generated by games of various genres exceeded 1.5 million copies. Richard Garriot is, of course, the creator of the iconic RPG Ultima, but Origin only stepped in for the third installment of the series.
For many years, Origin employed a certain Chris Roberts – today, the man behind the highly controversial, incredibly ambitious and expensive Star Citizen project – back then, the creator of the most popular space computer saga of the 90s, the Wing Commander series. At that time, Privateer was also developed, set in the same universe – a game similar to the upcoming Starfield, as well as Strike Commander – an air simulator with the plot of an action-movie, as well as the shooter Crusader: No Remorse.
In 1992, Origin Systems was acquired by Electronic Arts, although it continued to operate as a publisher itself. This is how System Shock – a game developed by LookingGlass Technologies studio – came to existence. Over the next years, Origin also dealt with new parts of Ultima and a series of realistic combat vehicle simulators, released as Jane's Combat Simulations. Then we got games like Jane's Longbow, U.S. Navy Fighters '97, Jane's F-15, USAF and a few others.
How did the studio disappear?
In 1997, Origin created Ultima Online, one of the first MMORPGs. Electronic Arts then realized what potential lies in network games, and comissioned the studio to work on this kind of games. Two years later, the ninth edition of the single-player Ultima was released, but it was received in a lukewarm fashion. Partly because of this, EA changed course and canceled all future Origin Systems projects such as Harry Potter Online, Ultima Online 2, and Privateer Online. This resulted in the departure of Richard Garriot – one of the co-founders of the company. EA held on to the studio for a while, but mainly keeping it as support, a provider of minor expansions to Ultima Online, to eventually close Origin Systems in 2004. In the process, any progress made on Ultima X: Odyssey and Jane's A-10 simulator went to the bin.
