URU is coming back!

Most of my readers probably know that I'm a big fan of the Myst series. There was a time when I lived and breathed the game. I was in a Myst fan chatroom when my parent's house caught fire. There were times when I considered attending a Myst fan convention. (Heck, there are still moments when I consider it, if I'm honest with myself.) Dragon Lady and I played Myst 3 together for quite a while back when we were first dating. It's one of those things that I grew up with, and it will be forever a part of me.

Due to my mission and such, I have never played Myst V (the last in the series), nor URU (the online multiplayer game based in the Myst universe). I'm working on Myst IV right now, and plan to play Myst V once I have a computer that will handle the graphics decently. I was quite disappointed, though, when URU was cancelled in 2004 for business reasons. I felt like I'd never quite be able to finish the series; there was some part of this obsession of mine that would never be fulfilled.

URU came back in late 2006 on GameTap, but was then cancelled again earlier this year. Naturally, all this back-and-forth availability has been rough on Cyan Worlds, Inc (the developer of the game), and there was a time in September 2005 when they actually laid off all but two of their employees before promptly re-hiring them when a deal was worked out with a third party. Even now, though, they seem to be limping by, despite creating the number-one-selling PC game from 1993 to 2002. When URU was cancelled this last time, it seemed like my hopes were lost.

So you can understand my excitement when I ran across news that GameTap and Cyan had worked out an agreement under which the license would return to Cyan. They didn't release all the details, but it sounds like neither GameTap nor Cyan was making money in the current state, so they figured it didn't hurt to let Cyan try at it. That's my understanding, anyway. The new agreement is really for the fans; Cyan is planning to only charge enough to maintain operation; they're not looking for profit right now. Content creation will be opened up to fans as well, so Cyan is essentially creating a quasi-open-source MMORPG to be run at cost only. Naturally, if it takes off, we can expect prices to rise, but I'm perfectly fine with that; anything that helps Cyan get into the black is good in my book.

So. If any of you have any interest in the Myst series, I encourage you to keep an eye on it. It's exciting for me, and hopefully by the time they get it up and running, I'll have a computer with a better graphics card than an integrated chip on my motherboard.

This is so cool. :)