Richard Garriott, the designer behind Ultima, has offered a blunt read on where the games industry stands. "The bells and whistles are no longer what's important," he told PC Gamer, arguing that technical spectacle has lost its power as the thing that sells games.

Garriott also drew a sharp contrast between eras of game development, noting of his early days: "Pre-EA, we never cancelled a project." The remark lands at a moment when cancellations have become routine across major publishers, with high-profile projects axed mid-development as companies restructure around fewer, bigger bets.

Coming from one of the medium's foundational designers — Garriott essentially helped invent the western RPG — the comments read as both nostalgia and critique. His view suggests the industry's competitive edge has shifted away from graphical arms races toward something else entirely, and that the project-cancellation culture of the modern era represents a real break from how games used to get made.