EA confiscates 15 trillion gold from Ultima Online

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Jul 7, 2006 2:54 pm PT

"Dirty money" yanked from gameworld, more than 180 accounts terminated for exploiting the system.

The world of Ultima Online just got a little poorer. Electronic Arts has announced the permanent removal of roughly 15 trillion gold from the game's economy and the termination of more than 180 user accounts in connection with the funds, which it referred to as "dirty money."

In a posting on the game's Web site, the company announced that the funds were confiscated in the form of large denomination checks. In-game checks were intended to top out at a million gold pieces, but EA discovered a number of players with checks far exceeding that amount. The publisher said "these inflated checks have been used by exploiters to store extremely large amounts of gold."

A quick survey of eBay found Ultima Online gold sellers typically asking for between $3 and $4 per million gold pieces, with the few auctions that actually had bids on them running closer to $1 per million gold pieces. Even at the low end of that range, the real-world value of the deleted gold would be about $15 million, and possibly closer to the $60 million some online sellers would ask for it.

113 Comments

  • Sylvas87

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 11:15 pm PT

    Gotta love EA. I log in once, to see if anyone still played, and I get labeled an exploiter and banned.

  • Cloud737

    Posted Dec 29, 2006 6:26 am PT

    Heh, another gold farming case, eh? Oh well, it`s not such a surprise.

  • Lyndy62

    Posted Nov 19, 2006 6:48 am PT

    UO should have died a long time ago. There has been several attempts to bring UO into the 21st century but they have all failed. The game may be fun, yet, when compared to present day MMO's, the archaic graphics and cheats ruin an otherwise enjoyable experience. UO is the model that all other MMO's spawned. It is a bit of history in the computer age. But sadly, I feel it has run it's course and needs to RIP. Maybe one day they will create something that again captures the imagination of gamers like UO once did. However, I think we have become jaded from over exposure and the experience of another UO in its infancy is probably not possible.

  • metroidfan220

    Posted Sep 28, 2006 7:27 am PT

    That's just crappy.

  • CrimeMyAntiDrug

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 2:44 am PT

    Actually, one of the major reasons people still play this game is because out of all of the MMOs out there, including WoW, it has the best PvP of any of them. Not to mention the fact that it is a lot easier to start out in, doesnt require you to completely devote your life to the game if you want to have a useful character, and despite the dated 2d graphics, it is still just downright enjoyable.

  • 00Rambol00

    Posted Jul 18, 2006 5:33 am PT

    I only have one thing to say....


    HAHAHA!

  • SambaLele

    Posted Jul 17, 2006 7:58 pm PT

    that's a great game, but sadly it's really easy to cheat/ exploit in that game...

  • usaokay

    Posted Jul 16, 2006 11:43 pm PT

    Ha ha, owned.

  • theRunninGamer

    Posted Jul 15, 2006 9:18 am PT

    I wish I had $15 million.

  • coltACP

    Posted Jul 15, 2006 5:27 am PT

    I can see why they did it, people other than EA making lots of money lol. Also crazy-go on GW now they reverted the gold drops and item drops when they introduced factions- its like christmas again

  • Cra2y

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 11:00 am PT

    180 users? lol there goes the UO community. Delete accounts and then nerf the hell out of farming. That'll fix their wagon.

  • Cra2y

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 10:50 am PT

    lol, delete money and accounts and then nerf the game. I remember playing GW and its farming, they nerfed it and the game got tedious and boring as far as making gold. And in GW if you were not farming and running with a group, "your party shares 100 gold". Its just ghey if it takes to long to make money in a game, it loses its "fun factor"

    low gold drops, nerfed farming

    make items in game outrageous prices

  • SoberWarock

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 2:46 am PT

    What is the best game EA has ever made?!

  • evilyoda861

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 9:35 pm PT

    I haven't even heard of this game. EA sucks so bad I wont be surprised when they go under with their **** games resently. Not like this will ruin any lives, or make them better so just something they want attention for. Hell wouldn't doubt they exaggerated some of it.

  • superkhy

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 12:33 am PT

    sounds more like a desperate cry for attention to me ("GUYS! CHECK OUT THIS HUGE NUMBER THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ANYONE! YES! SOMEONE IS LOOKING OUR WAY!")

  • joehead

    Posted Jul 12, 2006 6:25 pm PT

    Do people still play this game?Wasn't this like from 1969?Whats a MMO?How many licks to get to the centre of a tootsie pop?Why does it hurt when I pee?Do people still play this game?

  • chemnikk

    Posted Jul 12, 2006 11:22 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

  • Star67

    Posted Jul 12, 2006 10:52 am PT

    aww man, it looked like this was gonna be about spore.

  • jsambeckwith

    Posted Jul 12, 2006 8:06 am PT

    I don't even know what Ultima online is... nor do I care...

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