Impressive Ultima Sales

Lord British may be getting a lot of flak for developments (or lack thereof) in his Ultima Online role-playing game, but he and his compatriots at Origin have to be happy about at least one thing - the game is selling. And selling big.

Since the game hit the shelves on Sept. 25, Ultima Online has sold some 65,000 copies. That, Origin says, makes the game the company's fastest-selling ever. Not incidentally, Origin says, the game is also the most rapidly selling Internet-only game ever.

Origin parent Electronic Arts has scheduled another 80,000 copies of the game for shipment during the next few weeks. This shipment will also be the first major one to international markets, EA says. More than 15,000 copies of the game are headed for Japan, where the first 5,000 copies of Ultima Online were snapped up within about 15 minutes of release.