Ultima Online
"Ultima Online" (1997), a MMORPG spin-off of the main series, has become an unexpected hit, making it one of the earliest and longest-running successful MMORPGs of all time. Its lore retconned the ending of "Ultima I", stating that when the Stranger shattered the Gem of Immortality, he discovered that it was tied to the world itself, therefore its shards each contained a miniature version of Britannia. The player characters in "Ultima Online" exist on these "shards". Eight expansion packs for "UO" have been released (', ', ', ', ', ', ' and ') . The aging "UO" graphic engine was renewed in 2007 with the official ' client. "Ultima Online 2", later renamed to ' and canceled in 2001, would have introduced steampunk elements to the game world, following Lord British's unsuccessful attempt to merge past, present, and future shards together.