existing (and expensive) pre-rendered cinematics, but most of them were either heavily edited or used in a dramatically different context than originally intended, and sometimes both. Release and versions The game's release was initially complicated by a rather buggy first issue, with very advanced hardware requirements for the time; the design team had objected strongly to the timing of release, but the Electronic Arts management enforced it. A few months later, a fixed version was released; a further unofficial fix was leaked on the Internet a bit later by an anonymous member of the team. At the time of initial release, EA also produced a "Dragon Edition" of the game. It included an extra-large box, prints of in-game artwork, tarot cards, an ankh pendant, and special versions of the game books. Later, a "World Edition" was released containing copies of both Ultima IX: Ascension and Ultima Online: The Second Age. With the previous Ultima VIII considered to be a failure with weak sales, the poor reception of Ultima IX effectively killed the Ultima franchise; all other Ultima projects were cancelled and no other Ultima was ever released, save for expansion packs for Ultima Online. Electronic Arts explained that they were concentrating everything on Ultima Online 2; however, that, too, was cancelled, although the original Ultima Online remained active. Richard Garriott left Origin shortly afterwards, and parent company EA Games soon shut the studio down, later using the Origin name and a variation of the logo to brand their digital distribution service. After the shut-down of Origin, Ultima IX became unsupported software (Abandonware) despite the many complaints and unresolved bugs. Therefore, loyal fans of the series tried to address the biggest complaints and issues themselves; the community at Ultima: The Reconstruction released an unofficial patch to fix the inconsistencies within the Ultima IX storyline, bringing the story more, but not completely, in line with the rest of the series. Years later, digital video game distributor GOG.com re-released a downloadable version of Ultima IX on August 23, 2012. In November 2014, the Ultima Codex Community was able to acquire the Ultima 9 source code from a former developer for offline archival to prevent permanent loss. Reception The game received mixed reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. At the time of its release, many fans felt the game was unfinished and not as polished as the earlier Ultimas were. One of