Electronic Arts has announced that it has confiscated approximately 15 trillion gold pieces from within its long running PC massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ultima Online, which the company claims was obtained “through the abuse of bugs or exploitation of game mechanics”. In relation to this, in a statement posted on the game's official website, the company noted that it has canceled over 180 user accounts that it found connected to the accumulation of what EA referred to as “dirty money.” The statement added that the funds were discovered on in-game checks for over a million gold pieces. According to EA, checks were never intended to exist in denominations of more than a million. The publisher noted that “these inflated checks have been used by exploiters to store extremely large amounts of gold”. The company added that it realizes that “some of checks for amounts over one million gold were created by players who did not intend to exploit or harm the game,” and that in such cases “these checks have been automatically replaced with separate checks equal to the total amount of the replaced check.” The statement concluded: “We are committed to maintaining the integrity of Ultima Online, and will continue our efforts to rid the game of cheaters along with their ill-gotten gains. If you haven't done so recently, please take a moment to read the Terms of Service and Rules of Conduct, and remember to abide by them at all times.” This crackdown follows the recent news, following EA's acquisition of MMO developer Mythic Entertainment, that the newly acquired studio will help current EA staffers with the Ultima Online series. It is unknown if this added workforce have yet started looking at problems such as this within Ultima Online, however.