By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Electronic Arts' MMORPG-centric studio Mythic Entertainment, is now accepting applications for the closed beta of Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss, which will begin later this month.
Ultima Online is one of the most popular and longest-running massively multiplayer games in existence, which according to EA was the first of its kind to reach a subscriber base of more than 100,000 active users. Stygian Abyss focuses on Gargoyles, characters that have been central to the Ultima series since Ultima VI was released nearly 20 years ago for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64.
This expansion pack will enter commercial availability later this summer as a download only; and as digital downloads move toward becoming the primary method of video game distribution, EA has enjoyed massive growth in that category. In the company's most recent earnings call, CFO Eric Brown noted the company's revenue through digital distribution had almost doubled against last year's to $80 million.
"Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product," Brown said.
To join the beta, testers must own the original Ultima Online software.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009