Gamespot has a nice article about the next steps of Origin's Ultima Online, as Andy Hollis recently joined the Origin team as chief operating officer and executive producer. He's supposed to guide the team on the future of the whole Ultima-project. It all looks like they're dedicated to keep UO up and running; very interesting read. Here's a snip:

Origin's message is one of renewed optimism, and the studio believes that no one should count Ultima Online out of the competitive online market just because it was the first major massively multiplayer online game. In addition to the effort that's going into keeping the game fresh for long-term subscribers, there are continuing efforts to entice new players to the game.