Origin Systems

For the digital distribution service, see Origin (EA).
Origin Systems, Inc.
Subsidiary
Industry Video game industry
Fate Disbanded, Brand name/Logo applied or reappropriated to EA Download Manager, origin.com
Successor Destination Games
Portalarium
Founded 1983 (1983)
Defunct 2004 (2004)
Headquarters Austin, Texas, U.S.
Key people
 Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott (co-founders)
Products Ultima series
Wing Commander series
Crusader series
Strike Commander
System Shock
Wings of Glory
Parent Electronic Arts
Website www.origin.ea.com (archived)[1]

Origin Systems, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated as OSI) was a video game developer based in Austin, Texas, which was active from 1983 to 2004. It is most famous for the Ultima and Wing Commander series.

History

Brothers Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott, their father Owen, and Chuck Bueche founded Origin Systems in 1983 because of the trouble they had collecting money owed to Richard Garriott for his games released by other companies.[2][3] The company's first game was Ultima III: Exodus; because of Ultima's established reputation, Origin survived the video game crash that occurred that year. It published many non-Ultima games, and Richard Garriott claimed that he received the same royalty rate as other developers.[4]

By 1988 Origin had 15 developers in Austin, Texas, and 35 other employees in New Hampshire.[4] In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company[5] for $35 million in stock, despite a dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord. Origin, with about $13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an Initial Public Offering before agreeing to the deal.[6] By 1996, Origin had expanded to more than 300 employees, most of whom were divided among small, largely autonomous development teams.[7] In 1997, Origin released one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs, Ultima Online. After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX in 1999. However, within a year's time, in part due to Ultima IX's poor reception,[8] EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2, Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000.

In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on the Ultima franchise such as Ultima X: Odyssey, originally to be released in 2004 but later canceled. In February 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts. The Longbow series of simulation games was developed at Origin and published under the "Jane's Combat Simulations" brand of Electronic Arts. A follow-on project, Jane's A-10, was under development when the project was canceled in late 1998 and the team moved to other projects.

Notable employees

The 1980s version of the Origin Systems logo
The 1990s version of the Origin Systems logo

Origin employed many young game developers over its tenure who have since gone on to leading roles in numerous game development companies, especially in Austin. Among its prominent employees were (alphabetically):

"We Create Worlds"

Origin's motto was "We Create Worlds" and its games were known for their well-realized plots and the amount of detail furnished. OSI was always ahead of the curve in terms of cutting edge graphics and game versatility. The original Wing Commander, for instance, came with a booklet purporting to be a shipboard magazine named Claw Marks, written and published by the crew of the game's spacecraft carrier Tiger's Claw (ghost-written by Aaron Allston); it provided the player with a number of irrelevancies (such as an interview with the star of a popular televised wartime drama) as well as convenient statistics and user guides for ships, weapon systems, and information regarding pilots and tactics on both Terran and Kilrathi sides and also hints on a rich background history.

List of games

Developed and published

Published

Canceled

References

  1. ↑ "Origin". March 30, 1997. Archived from the original on March 30, 1997.
  2. ↑ Warren Spector interviewing Richard Garriott for his University of Texas Master Class in Video Games and Digital Media
  3. ↑ Durkee, David (Nov–Dec 1983). "Profiles in Programming / Lord British". Softline. p. 26. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Ferrell, Keith (January 1989). "Dungeon Delving with Richard Garriott". Compute!. p. 16. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Varney, Allen (October 11, 2005). "The Conquest of Origin". The Escapist. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Electronic Arts And Origin Pool Resources in "Ultimate" Acquisition". Computer Gaming World. November 1992. p. 176. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  7. ↑ "Origin". Next Generation. Imagine Media (13): 105–8. January 1996.
  8. ↑ Interview with Richard Garriott, Executive Producer, NCSoft Austin
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