(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 .
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Mythic Entertainment (after August 2006, EA Mythic) is one of the pioneers in online game development. It is best known for its 2001 #1 world bestselling MMORPG, , which is slated for release in Q1 2008.
Mythic originally evolved from two early Washington, DC (USA) area online game development companies. The first was (AUSI), was founded in 1984 By Mark Jacobs 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.
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The other half of Mythic Entertanment was , founded by
Rob Denton ,
Matt Firor , Don Cambpell, and Roger Shropshire in Fairfax, VA, in 1990. Prior to the founding of Mythic Entertainment, ISI had developed one multi-user BBS text-based roleplaying game called "Tempest", which was later renamed
Darkness Falls . Darkness Falls would later provide the codebase for
Dark Age Of Camelot , Mythic's hugely successful MMORPG released in 2001.
Mythic Entertainment was officially formed in 1995 when AUSI (Mark Jacobs) and ISI (
Rob Denton ) joined together. Its original name was , but due to a conflict with another "Interworld" (a web development company), in November 1997 the name was changed to Mythic Entertainment.
Mythic made numerous online games in the mid and late 1990s, ranging from online action '', and ''
Splatterball ''. The original AUSI game ''Dragon's Gate'' was transferred from GEnie to
America Online in 1996.
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 started ''
Dark Age Of Camelot '' development in late 1999. The company invested $3.2 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. ''
Dark Age Of Camelot '' was also the company's first massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
''
Dark Age Of Camelot '' development was led by
Rob Denton , as lead programmer, and by
Matt Firor as Producer. The original concept for the game was conceived by
Mark Jacobs . Design for the game was accomplished by a team of Mythic employees, including Denton, Firor, and Jacobs, as well as programmer Brian Axelson, who designed the game's innovative (for its time) combat system.
''
Dark Age Of Camelot '' 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.
''Dark Age of Camelot'' support and development continues, in parallel with other EA Mythic projects, such as the 2005-announced ''
Warhammer Online ''.
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.
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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.
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In 2002, Mythic announced it was working on a new title, a science-fiction themed MMO called
Imperator Online . This MMORPG based on an
Alternate History where the
Roman Republic never fell, and advanced to be a space-travelling multi-planet Empire. ''Imperator'' was originally slated 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.
Mythic was purchased by Electronic Arts in the summer of 2006. Mark Jacobs continues as General Manager of EA Mythic, which is now an Electronic Arts studio. As part of the acquisition, EA Mythic now controls not only , but also the older EA MMORPG,
Ultima Online .
During the E3 trade show, on
May 18 2005 , Mythic announced that it had licensed the
Warhammer IP and was starting to work on a new MMO, ''
Warhammer Online ''. This title is scheduled for release in the first Quarter of 2008.
