Has anyone else received the pre-released special edition of Ultima Forever that EA has been sending out? It's packaged like the old boxed Ultima games and includes a collectible cloth map.

Here is a photo of the package with the cloth map and freebies.

P.S. SHINY!!!

Where do you buy it?

You can't buy it.

Many "Ultima Dragons" -- i.e., long-time Ultima fans from the 1980s and 1990s -- had received invitations from EA to test the beta for the upcoming game. Those who accepted the invitation are reporting that they have received the collectible boxed game with the cloth map as a thank-you gift.

I predict these things will be very, very valuable in a few years.

Evil EA, the basterds. They ruin the gaming, and do not care about fans, only thinking about the money they can make. GRAAAAHHH

Maybe you will be able to buy it. Maybe EA will also release a collector edition with a cloth map to the public. Who knows.

Then again, Ultima Forever will be a free-to-play nickle-and-dime not-really-freemium. So the actual game will not be sold in a box at store or Amazon. So there is a good possibility that this cloth-map edition is for the Ultima Dragon Beta Testers only.

Can't we make these maps ourselves? Send a map image file to some service and they pprint it on a dish towel or something? Surely there must be services like that.
I'm serious, I want dish towels with maps of my old games now.

That's actually pretty brave of EA, considering what Ultima fans generally think of them.

Do they really think that they're going to go from "EA ruined the series once, and now they're desecrating its corpse with this freemium crap featuring a scantily clad Lady British, I hope they burn in a special hell" to "Hey, EA gave me free stuff, everyone support them in return!"

Lol. They're apologizing first this time.

Ultima Forever is a tablet action game

Like the old story "Brave New World" I kinda wonder if this huge movement towards one-finger tablets is plot to intellectually impede people to make for less competition in the job market.

Back in my days they used death metal and marijuana, last generation they hit everyone with Sponge Bob but perhaps scientists have recenlty found it just as easy running targets through simplistic repetition.

"A wickedy-doo, tablets and torchlight II while I get my doctorate you shall become a smoo!"

Honestly, the only good thing about Ultima Beyond is the cloth map.

Never heard about Ultima Forever before and after a quick google search, holy cow...

I swear, first Ultima game I have ever been excited since... ever! Loved the simple style!

Waitaminute, it's already available in Canada?

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/ultima-forever-quest-for-avatar/id591541650?mt=8

Those customer reviews don't look promising...

Very nice, I'm green with envy ;p

Dammit! I applied to be an Ultima Dragon back in the 90s and nobody responded. In fact the site was so quiet I questioned their existence.