netdragon posts

Fans of Ultima Online have been waiting (and waiting) for a proper sequel to the first successful MMO game for years. In fact two attempts at sequels were canceled by publisher Electronic Arts after they were first announced. Now EA has announced that they plan to release a new Ultima Online game. However this game isn't for the US market but for the growing Asian online game business.

EA is teaming up with China-based NetDragon to bring the new Ultima Onlie game to China, Hong Kong, Macau and India. Mythic Entertainment, who has taken over development of Ultima Online here in the US, will also work on the new Asian version of the game. Details about the game as well as a release date have not been announced.

On Monday, NetDragon announced plans to launch Dungeon Keeper Online, an upcoming MMO for the Asian market based on the classic PC strategy game. Today NetDragon announced yet another Asian based MMO based on a Western property. This time its for Disney Fantasy Online based on the classic Walt Disney cartoon characters.

Due for release this spring the game will allow players to interact with Mickey Mouse and other classic Disney characters, build virtual castles for their personal use, engage in turn based battles and explore virtual worlds based on Disney's most famous stories. Again this game seems to be strickly for the Asian market for now; there's no word on a US release date.

One of the most beloved PC game franchises in history is coming back, but not in the form that most gamers might have wanted. The franchise is Dungeon Keeper, the strategy game where you are the bad guy in a fantasy universe setting traps and monsters to defeat the AI controlled heroes. Developed by Peter Molyneux at his original game developer Bullfrog, the original game was released in 1997 with a sequel released in 1999 (Molyneux had left Bullfrog to form Lionhead Studios soon after the completion of the first game in the series)

Today the Chinese game publisher NetDragon Websoft announced that it has acquired the rights from Dungeon Keeper's current owner Electronic Arts to create Dungeon Keeper Online, an MMO title that will be made strictly for the Asian game market (although the press release does say it's possible it could be released to other markets as well). Details of the game itself haven't been revealed but the license allows NetDragon to use the "themes, characters and other game content" of the Dungeon Keeper series. In the meantime Western gamers will have to make due with the Overlord games which have some of the themes of Dungeon Keeper.