Origin Systems
More info
- Creator
- Richard Garriott, Robert Garriott
- Released
- 1983
- Type
- Game developer
"We create worlds," said the boxes, and for once the slogan was an understatement.
Brothers Richard and Robert Garriott founded Origin in 1983 to publish Richard's Ultima role-playing series, which by the late 1980s judged players on their virtues rather than their kill count. Austin then produced Wing Commander in 1990, Chris Roberts's space combat game that sold a lot of new graphics and sound cards.
Electronic Arts bought the company in 1992. Ultima Online in 1997 was one of the first big graphical online role-playing games and led Garriott to popularise the word MMORPG, long before MMO was a genre of its own. EA later cancelled most new projects and closed Origin in 2004, a year after the same fate befell Westwood Studios.