Ultima's Robert Garriott was worried about there being too many PC games on the market… 37 years ago

Ultima’s Robert Garriott was worried about there being too many PC games on the market… 37 years ago | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG You can blame some of Deus Ex: Invisible War’s console limitations on the publisher’s ‘weird theories that FPS games don’t sell or RPGs don’t sell’ RPG ‘A good idea, infinite drive, and lots of Diet Pepsi’: How YouTube essayist Majuular’s life changed course telling the story of Ultima across 2 years and more than 20 hours of documentaries FPS Highguard’s failure is emblematic of something that has tormented videogame investors for years now: past live service hits do not equal future live service hits RPG Original Fallout lead Tim Cain reckons vitriol around games has always been around, but it’s ‘more hostile’ these days: ‘I see lot of people arguing past each other, even if that means denying that the other group even exists’ Gaming Industry New Blood CEO Dave Oshry says he’s ‘always loved GOG’ but ‘they need enough people to give a s**t, or how long are they even going to be around’ Games 2025 saw game developers scrambling to avoid heavy hitters like Grand Theft Auto 6 and Hollow Knight: Silksong Gaming Industry Fallout co-creator Tim Cain says less is often more in game design: ‘As a very wise designer once said to me, a game that includes everything is about nothing’ Gaming Industry Videogames are ‘losing in the War for Attention’: Analyst says many of the industry’s biggest markets are spending less time on gaming Gaming Industry An indie asking for $250,000 is ‘a drop in the bucket’ says Tunic’s publisher, but indies are in a ‘survival’ era because companies think that ‘isn’t profitable enough’ to fund Gaming Industry CEO of Kitfox Games reckons hundreds of hours playing Civilization could be the secret to the Dwarf Fortress publisher’s success: ‘Maybe Kitfox wouldn’t be as successful if I didn’t know how to alternate between science trees and army defences’ Platforms Wrestling the Steam ‘Goliath,’ pulling a Nightdive, and seeing off vulture capital: GOG chats the risks and opportunities of its future as a company without CD Projekt Gaming Industry Doom co-creator John Romero adores Ghost Recon and has over 3,000 hours in World of Warcraft: ‘God, I lived in that game every day for five years’ Assassin’s Creed Former Assassin’s Creed director doesn’t think the current way of making big budget games is ‘tenable’: ‘I think the future lies in smaller teams’ Gaming Industry Despite having nearly its entire back catalog on Steam, Suda51’s studio doesn’t benefit much from sales of its old games: ‘It’s really nice for the other people who are making bank off that, though’ Gaming Industry Nightdive Studios’ Stephen Kick has 8,544 hours in Dota 2, and just clocked his 5,000th win: ‘I think it’s made me a better leader’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonGDCBest PC gearQuizzes Gaming Industry Ultima’s Robert Garriott was worried about there being too many PC games on the market… 37 years ago News By Wes Fenlon published 20 March 2026 “The consumer doesn’t really know what to buy for their computer,” Garriott said in 1989, while also pointing to the popularity of Nintendo’s newfangled game console. 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Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter You may have heard of a little RPG series called Ultima, which was so successful in the ’80s and ’90s that series creator Richard Garriott earned enough money to travel to the bottom of the ocean and also the International Space Station. Part of the success of his game studio, Origin Systems, was due to his brother Robert Garriott, who later became a vice president at EA and then ran the US branch of Guild Wars studio NCSoft when it was launching MMOs like City of Heroes.Before all that, though, Robert Garriott showed up to the 1989 Computer Game Developers Conference in his role as the business brain at Origin Systems, to talk about a very 2026 problem: There are just too many dang computer games!Thanks to the Videogame History Foundation, which has digitized a near-complete set of cassette tapes from the 1989 conference, we can hear Garriott speaking on a panel with publishers from other big names at the time, including EA (which bought Origin Sy