>>12459771
>In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company for $35 million in stock, despite a dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord. Origin, with about $13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an IPO before agreeing to the deal.
Money, DUH

>>12459771
to fund his delusions

>>12459771
Imagine you just abandoned college to make games. You made an indie game as a solo dev that sold alright. Then you decided to hire more people to work on your next game, then the game became an even bigger hit. Then you used the profit to expand your new company and make an even better game. And it sold even better...
After 10 years, you realize that the gaming market has changed. No longer could you make a game in a couple of months as you used to, now you needed years, a bigger team, software, marketing etc. The video games were evolving, you needed to follow the pace and continue making hit after hit.
But it's not enough that the game has to be profitable. No, it needs to be a MASSIVE success. You do want your next project to be better? Well, you need your game to sell 5x the amount you spend, and if your game flops? You are screwed, you are gonna have to lay off people or potentially shut down the entire company.

Origin fell into what we call "AAA trap". You spend so much time and money making your game, you need every game to be a big hit, or else you can kiss goodbye to your company. But if you sold your company to a mega corpo like EA, you could get the funding you need for the next game and loads of other benefits (Origin moved to a larger, better building when EA bought them out). It looked good on paper, but EA, being a corpo as they are, started putting pressure on Origin to release their games at a faster rate, because you can't work on a game for several years, putting millions of dollars into it, and only to end up failing in sales.

Creativity and business are always in a clash between publishers and devs. If Origin didn't sell EA, they would have shut down earlier. Their games were selling well, but not well enough to have a next game be a major improvement over the first. Yes, EA eventually killed Origin 12 years later, but Origin already had terrible management

>>12459814
>a bigger team
And you're responsible for the livelyhood of men trying to raise their families.

>>12459771
He probably didn't see the company as a big deal, he could sell it, take the money, and just start another one because buyers would go where the talent and good games are. Unfortunately creatives often don't understand marketing and the business side of things too well

>>12459771
Remember Garriott ended up so rich that he became the first space tourist

>>12459771
Money. That's it. Richard Garriott did it for money. Like he did for everything. The dude had a castle in Texas with secret rooms and everything. Went to space. Mariana Trench. Etc. The whole reason he wanted EA to fund Ultima Online was for money. RG saw dollar signs seeing what the future of the internet will bring (moving from dial-up modems to high speed cable internet). EA wasn't the least bit interested in UO until the beta CDs sold for 5 dollars a pop or something like that. *A lot* of players were interested at the time. Then, and only then, did EA show any interest in UO. That's just one example. The other is that you get so big that you have to keep that momentum going game after game. Expenses increase, more team members join, your castle is costing too much to maintain. You use your fame and karma to fund yet another online game through a kickstarter to catch the nostalgic gaze of those who miss the prime years of Ultima Online's release, complete with a cash shop selling castles for 10,000 dollary-doos. The bigger you are, the cracks form. Then a crummy company like EA eats you from the inside out. Well that was before SotA.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting but I just exercised and showered and I'm tired and about to eat fried rice.

>>12460032
Yeah, this is why Garriott ended up being poor bum.

>>12461779
"im lord british."

yeah yeah pal take a coin

>>12459771
He had no choice. They had him by the balls.

>>12463457
i would rather burn everything myself than selling to electronic farts

>>12463473
Can't stop people from buying publicly traded stock

>>12461779
>poor

His current net balance isn't known, but 15 years ago he had over a billion dollars. Sitting back and enjoying the riches of your youth sounds a heck of a lot better than staying in the rat race of trying to make computer games for a user base that mostly just bitches and whines endlessly no matter what gets made.

Because money
>Their games were selling extremely well
Not really, they sold fine, but not that well. PC was still a pretty niche ass market for games, and was a very volatile market, you know how many dev studios went from making "The next big thing" to literally dying within a few years? Many literally had no choice but to sell out to a bigger company.

>>12463473
No one really wants to do that, but it's the choice "Oops, studio dies and the franchises with it, ended on an unresolved cliff hanger", or you cash out and the franchises live another day.
In hindsight seeing how Ultima ended up post VII part 1, it ended up pretty badly, but I'd imagine there would be endless bitching about Ultima ending with Serpent Isle forever.
Honestly, I'd rather the current reality of "it ended on a brown note, but it's just over".
Also no one really knew the ultimate consequences of selling your soul to EA until at least the 2000s, so to many, it was just winning the lottery, who cares if your studios go to shit?

>>12463473
EA wasn't that terrible yet in those days.
And made good shit like Deluxe Paint

>>12463703
>Also no one really knew the ultimate consequences of selling your soul to EA until at least the 2000s, so to many, it was just winning the lottery, who cares if your studios go to shit?
>>12463706
>EA wasn't that terrible yet in those days.
Yeah, this wasn't too far removed from the early days of the 80s when EA had a reputation as the "good" publisher who treated the talent with respect.

>>12459771
the relevant question is: What did Richard Garriot get out of the transaction?
answer: somewhere between 'a lot of money' and 'absurdly large amounts of money'

>>12459771
Never underestimate the boomer impulse to sell out and spend down their retirement wealth

>>12459771
>Why did Richard Garriot sold

>grammatically incorrect "Why-" thread #1597149856
IF YOU FUCKING FAGGOTS DON'T NOTICE THIS FUCKING PATTERN YET AND STILL KEEP REPLYING LIKE RETARDED DIPSHITS I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CAN POSSIBLY BE CALLED WHITE

>>12464437
I just assume nobody under the age of 30 knows proper grammar anymore, 'cause nobody reads.

>>12464432
Never would

>>12459814
or he could just stay a small timey indie forever. case in point: Spiderweb games.

>>12461779
>>12463671
pretty sure he sold out soon after Ultimate Online became a hit. then worked for koreans to fund his space adventure, then got fired, and the MMO he was making for koreans flopped too.

>>12459771
Money?

>>12469462
/thread

>>12459771
Garriot was the biggest self-aggrandizing asshole in the industry.