Richard Garriott
Now
Independent — publicly working to reclaim the Ultima copyrights from EA under US copyright-reversion law, with the window opening in 2027
As of 2026-06-20 · source ↗
Lord British himself. Garriott created the Ultima RPGs, coined the term 'MMORPG' while making Ultima Online, and founded Origin Systems ('We Create Worlds') and later Destination Games with NCsoft. Outside games he is an astronaut and explorer — one of the first private citizens to fly to the International Space Station — and in 2026 he began the legal process of reclaiming the Ultima copyrights from EA.
Coined the word MMORPG and shipped the game that defined it — Ultima Online opened the persistent-world era, and every shard since runs downstream of it.— MMOlist Hall of Fame citation
Career
- Shroud of the Avatar2013–2018Creative director, Portalarium
- Tabula Rasa2001–2008Executive producer, Destination Games / NCsoft
- Ultima Online1995–2000Creator & producer — 'Lord British', Origin Systems
- Ultima I–IX1981–1999Creator, Ultima series
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