Ultima Forever free-to-play features detailed

EA has dropped some info about the recently-announced free-to-play Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, covering important questions like: “I know it’s free, but nothing is really free, so how does that work?”

In an interview with IGN, executive producer Jeff Skalski explained that the game doesn’t come with any time restrictions, and players can play as much as they like without putting any cash in EA’s bank account.

“I never wanted to kick players out of our game and say, ‘Hey, come back in 3 hours. Goodbye.’ The game is wide open,” he said. “You’ll need to level up to take on new challenges, but all of that can be earned by just playing the game.”

Obviously, there’s stuff to buy if you want to pay for it, including “vanity gear”, weapons, items, extra inventory space, and even early access to new features.

“The only one thing we won’t sell is virtue. You have to earn that!” he added, presumably because – record scratch! – EA is in short supply.

Ultima Forever is in development over at BioWare, although original Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriot is too busy building a spaceship (or whatever) to get involved in the project.

The game will go live at an as yet unconfirmed date later this year, with two classes (fighter and mage) available at launch and another six to be added over the next few months.