April 16, 1992 - Ultima 7 is released
September 1992 - Origin Systems acquired by EA for $35m
March 15, 1994 - Ultima 8 released
...
I will credit Garriott and Molyneux as being some of the most [overly] ambitious game designers, and this is not at all a bad thing in my opinion. Not everything they did worked, but when it did, they created history. And even when it did not work, at least they attempted to break new ground.