It seems Electronic Arts is aggressively moving in the free-to-play territory. After also releasing SimCity Social and having developer BioWare working on a free Warhammer game, the publisher will now also adapt the Ultima franchise.

Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar will release later this year for PC and iPad and will feature crossplay. This RPG is once more in hands of BioWare. Eugene Evans of BioWare mentioned: “As huge fans of the Ultima franchise, the team is not only excited to bring this reimagining of the original world to the fans of the classic RPGs, but also to introduce a new generation of gamers who have never had a chance to discover why this is one of our industry’s most beloved worlds.”

The game will feature RPG gameplay as well as the studio’s brand of rich storytelling. The Ultima series has been going on for about 3 decades now and has enjoyed much critical acclaim and a sizable fan base. This announcement follows the earlier news that classic game site GOG.com offers free editions of some of the games.

Interested parties can already sign up for the Beta, given they have or create an EA Origin account. You’ll find the Beta application here.