Ultima 8: Pagan is now free on Origin

Origin Systems' Ultima 8: Pagan is the latest free game in Origin's "On the House" program, publisher Electronic Arts announced today.

EA is offering the Gold Edition of Ultima 8, which regularly costs $4.99, as a free download. It replaces Bullfrog Productions' Syndicate as the On the House game. As usual with On the House, customers will get the full game for free and will own it forever.

Ultima 8 was originally released in March 1994 on MS-DOS as the ninth entry in the long-running Ultima series of role-playing games. It wasn't nearly as well-received critically or commercially as its predecessors in the franchise, and producer Richard Garriott later admitted, "We probably shipped it three months unfinished."