EA Mythic

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Mythic Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Interworld Productions) is a computer game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that is most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic has been a prolific creator of multiplayer online games since its formation in the mid 1990s.

Electronic Arts purchased Mythic Entertainment on June 20, 2006. [1]

1 History
2 Presently
3 Current Projects
4 External links

[edit] History

Mythic evolved from an earlier game developer called Adventures Unlimited Software Inc. (AUSI) that was founded in 1984 when it launched Aradath, a commercial online RPG that charged $40 USD per month. AUSI later developed games for GEnie, creating an online version of Diplomacy with Eric Raymond in 1990, and Dragon's Gate in 1985, originally inspired by Aradath. Mark Jacobs was the president of AUSI and other developers there would later work for Mythic. [2]

Interworld Productions was formed in 1995 by Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton. It was soon discovered that another "Interworld" was founded that same year and in November 1997 Interworld Productions changed its name to Mythic Entertainment. The company transferred Dragon's Gate from GEnie to America Online in 1996. Mythic made numerous online games in the late 1990s, ranging from online action first-person shooters to online RPGs. Some titles include Silent Death Online, Magestorm Millennium, Darkness Falls: The Crusade, ID4 Online, Spellbinder: The Nexus Conflict, and Splatterball Plus.

In March 2001, Silent Death: Online was transferred from AOL to the EA.com Platinum game service, where it resided for 8 months, before EA's "sunset announcement" in November 2001, announced the shutting down of the game on December 6. For several years, the game has retained a large fanbase, and many still hope for the resurrection of the game some day.

Mythic took a chance that paid off in developing Dark Age of Camelot. They spent $2.5 million developing the game, a significant budgetary leap for the company considering this amount was more than double the sum used for all its previous games. DAOC was also the company's first massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Scott Jennings, a popular MMORPG commentator known as "Lum the Mad", joined Mythic as a game designer and helped work on their MMORPG. DAOC was published by Vivendi Universal and launched smoothly in October 2001, earning respect and commercial success in the market. The game continues its success and has spawned several expansions.

Mythic sued Microsoft in December 2003 for trademark infringement and unfair competition regarding the name of Microsoft's Mythica MMORPG, which was in development at that time. On May 25, 2004, three months after the game was cancelled, Mythic announced that the case was settled and that Microsoft agreed to not use the Mythica name on new online computer games and to not register it as a trademark. Also as part of the deal, Microsoft gave all Mythica-related trademarks and domain names to Mythic. [3]

[edit] Presently

Mythic Entertainment is one of the fastest growing private technology companies. It has been listed on the Deloitte Technology 500 list of fastest growing (by revenue) technology companies in North America since 2002. In 2004 it ranked 106th with a 2,226% increase in revenue over the past five years. It also ranked 36th on Inc. magazine's 500 fastest growing private companies in America in 2003. Mythic also received the largest investment given to an independent game developer when TA Associates invested $32 million in March 2003. Mythic is also notable for sharing earnings with its employees, which they credit as contributing to strong employee retention. [4]

As of 2004, Mark Jacobs is continues as president and CEO of Mythic Entertainment, which now has more than a dozen online games to its credit. Mythic was formerly working on Imperator Online, a science fiction MMORPG based on an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell. Imperator was originally expected to be launched in winter 2005, but on July 17, 2005 Mythic announced that it was being postponed indefinitely, with no new release date announced.

[edit] Current Projects

On May 18, 2005, announced during the E3 conference of that year, the Warhammer Online license was acquired by Mythic. The reborn effort to create a Warhammer MMORPG is planned for completion in 2007.

Dark Age of Camelot support and development continues in parallel with their upcoming MMORPG.