UO - Kingdom Reborn Interview @ FiringSquad

EA's Aaron Cohen again pops up, this time in an interview at FiringSquad:

FiringSquad: How did the idea for Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn come about?

Aaron Cohen: About a year and a half ago, we began talking about the future of UO, why it had stood the test of time and what possibilities for the future might be. The more we looked at the game and the community, the more potential we saw. Years and years of development had created one of the deepest MMORPGs ever.

We had great content and a great game, but productions values had grown old. Could we re-draw the graphics? Could we re-build the UI? Could we make new players feel welcome while at the same time enrich the experience of our elder players?

We began with a small team of four exploring prototypes, re-drawing art and playing with UI functionality. It began to take shape. Pretty soon, we had momentum, went in to full pre-production with a team of about 20, then full production with a team of about 40, and now we’re getting tantalizing close to finishing.Along the way, we teamed up with EA Mythic, who provided lots of technology and expertise, which sped things along quite nicely. And here we are!