It all started on 4th May 2003 when the first rumours of Ultima X leaked and were announced by Stratics. On 16th June 2003, a screenshot of the Ultima X title leaked, revealing the full name of this mysterious product - Ultima X: Odyssey. A screenshot from the trailer leaked soon after, showing a mage, a fighter and a gorgon (see the screenshot at UltimaDot), bringing up more discussion and curiosity as to what it may be all about.
In August 2003, a lot of previews, screenshots and a trailer were released, and these came flooding in especially when the X-Event took place between 21st and 22nd August 2003, giving the people who attended the chance to know more about the game and play it firsthand. The event is now over and the flow of information about it has slowly died down; and this Ultima X resource page had been made as a centre to find any desired Ultima X information quickly and easily.
As of around 11th October 2003, Ultima X could already be preordered via GameStop. The preorder page had some information about the game as well as a picture of the box art. The address of the preorder page now seems to produce a 404 error.
On 30th June 2004, the main page of the official Ultima X website was replaced with a redirection to the following press release:
June 30, 2004
Dear Ultima X: Odyssey community members,
As of today, development on Ultima X: Odyssey has ended. We feel that Ultima Online is where we need to focus our online efforts and most of my team will be moving to the UO expansion pack, the UO live team, and an unannounced Ultima Online project. Development on UO will be greatly enhanced as we consolidate our resources behind that franchise.
This isn't an easy decision but it's the right move for the future of all things Ultima, including the community and the team. We look forward to sharing our plans for the future of Ultima Online very soon.
I would like to thank all of the Ultima X: Odyssey supporters who have been with us from the beginning. I hope you will continue to support the Ultima franchise and the development team as they transition to new projects.
Thank you,
David "InQWis" Yee
Producer, Ultima X: Odyssey
The official Ultima X website is still accessible via the main page after the splash page.
Articles:
Opinions:
Articles and opinions together:
Websites dedicated to Ultima X: Odyssey include:
There is also a section of La Legende d' Ultima dedicated to Ultima X: Odyssey.
Markee Dragon attended the X-Event, and some interesting information has been added to his website, including information about:
Various information can be found elsewhere, at:
Previews of Ultima X: Odyssey can be found:
Ultima X: Odyssey interviews can be found:
Ultima X: Odyssey screenshots can be found:
The Media page at the official Ultima X website has quite a bit of media, including:
Information about the Ultima X: Odyssey team can be found:
A movie showing the making of Ultima X has been released on the movies page of UXO stratics on 22nd September 2003.
An Ultima X trailer was released around 22nd August 2003 by EA. It is 2 minutes and 34 seconds long, 22.3MB big and shows various things in Ultima X, including the Avatar, combat, a female gargoyle, several monsters and the Avatar/Guardian hybrid. It can be downloaded from:
Another 8-second long trailer containing a few combat scenes from the actual trailer leaked out on 16th August 2003, and can be downloaded (direct link) from UO Stratics.
Another trailer was released even earlier, on 26th July 2003, at http://www.eaxevent.com/, as a kind of preview for the game and hint to the X-Event, but it has been taken down since the X-Event is now over. It can now be found here at the UXO Compendium (thanks Natreg for finding this).
The Ultima X Premier Event took place in San Francisco between 21st and 22nd August 2003. The people who attended, from EA employees to Ultima Dragons, were told in detail about the upcoming game, and given the opportunity to play it themselves. If you want more information about it, you can read:
Most of the above links also have pictures, which are either in-game screenshots or photos of the X-Event.
Ultima X is not considered canon for Ultima nitpicking at Hacki's Ultima Page, so I'm just going to collect the nitpicks myself for fun. Even though the game was never released, nitpicks have already been found:
Just in that bit there are already 2 nitpicks:and grown gargoyles boast large bat-like wings. They cannot fly, but use their wings and tails to ensure a keen sense of balance while fighting.
