7/31/2026
Greetings,
Over the past few months we have seen much excitement throughout Britannia! Fungus frenzy gripped the realm as explorers set out to catalog and collect mushrooms from lands near and far and celebrate Spritelight. Moonveil called to the pilgrim in us all, walking the path of Virtue and reminding us of the majesty and mystery of the celestial heavens above. Now, we look ahead as Summer winds down and we slip into Fall.
Publish 124
Publish 124 is scheduled for its initial Test Center release next week, and a planned World Wide launch later in August. This publish is packed with new adventures & updates including,
- Shardfall – Celebrate the destruction of the Gem of Immortality and the defeat of Mondain the Wizard! Donate supplies to Britannia’s cities and prepare for an epic fireworks celebration! Take part in the Echoes of Mondain Encounter, with two difficulty modes to test even the most seasoned of fighters. Who will be Britannia’s Champion?
- Lady Melisande Update – Look for new rewards from this Peerless boss encounter, including a recipe for an all new Leaf Belt as well as 2 new hair dye colors. This is just the start of more meaningful updates coming to the Peerless Encounters in upcoming publishes.
- New Stealables – Virtue Pilgrims attempting to spread the words of The Virtues into the deepest dungeons of Sosaria have met an untimely fate. Should your rogue skills be up to the challenge, you can collect all eight new styles of Virtue Books!
- Hair Dye Unlock System – Unique Hair dyes will now unlock on your character when you use them for the first time and can be swapped out anytime, without limit, by visiting a Hairstylist.
- 29th Anniversary Gifts – Celebrate 29 amazing years of Ultima Online with new styles of furniture to collect!
- Huntmaster’s Challenge – The Rangers Guild in Skara Brae gets an addition as new species are added to the rolls of approved quarry!
- Halloween – A Britannian favorite, tricks and treats return for 2026 with updates to Carveable Pumpkins, Trick or Treating, and Skeletons.
- Ultima Store – Continue to customize the look of your character with the new Belt Transmogrification Potion, extend your luck with the Elixir of Enduring Luck, ride high on the new True Britannian Horse and more seasonal offerings throughout the year!
- Quality of Life – Making the gameplay experience more enjoyable is something we continually strive for. In this publish the Rune Book and Runic Atlas get a makeover with the ability to rename and reorder runes within the book without having to remove them first.
Weekend Events
In anticipation of the release of Shardfall we are also pleased to announce a special weekend of fun and exclusive rewards! These limited-time weekend events begin Friday evenings and offer a weekend full of one-of-a-kind opportunities to engage with new content! Each Weekend Event will have 2 shards chosen to host the event. Our first Weekend Event is slated for August 14th – so get your characters ready on Great Lakes & Wakoku!
New Legacy: Season 2
In 2020 we announced a bold new project, Ultima Online: New Legacy. New Legacy launched in 2024 with an aim to rekindle the roots of Ultima as an RPG and conjure the magic of experiencing a fantasy world for the first time. Season 1 was an incredible journey filled with stories, adventures, and lessons learned.
We are excited to share that New Legacy Season 2 will launch this fall with new features including,
- Player Onboarding & Tutorial – Landing in a strange land without any idea of what to do can be overwhelming and Britannia is no different! With Season 2 we offer new and returning players to Ultima Online helpful tips & information, making their journey easier to learn the game and how to adventure throughout Sosaria.
- The Path of Chivalry – Will you answer the call of the righteous? Embark on an all-new advanced narrative and walk the path of the Paladin as you help restore the legendary Order of Paladins to Britannia.
- Family Heirlooms – A brand-new collection of Family Heirlooms awaits discovery. Unearth truly unique 1-of-1 treasures that become a permanent part of your family’s legacy.
- Magery – The arcane arts have evolved. Spellcasters can now unlock permanent magical knowledge that reduces mana costs, improves casting efficiency, and further refines their mastery of Magery.
- Crafting – Resource gathering has never been more rewarding. Discover Antiquities and Family Heirlooms while harvesting, contribute new supplies to the Congiarium, and craft powerful new items using rare recipes and materials.
- Antiquities – The Vesper Museum once again seeks daring explorers to recover Britannia’s forgotten relics. Hunt down an all-new collection of Antiquities and earn unique rewards for your discoveries.
- Pets – Become a true master of the wilds. Discover ancient taming knowledge, uncover powerful Pet Lures, and track down elusive new animal breeds found only in Season 2.
- Legendary Foes – Legendary Foes return with balance improvements, updated rewards, and brand-new encounters exclusive to Season 2. Gather your allies and face some of Britannia’s greatest threats.
- Core Systems – Season 2 includes a wide range of gameplay improvements, including reward balancing, progression tuning, Congiarium updates, Guild XP adjustments, and many additional quality-of-life enhancements.
Classic Client Update
One of the core responsibilities we have to our players is ensuring an even playing field and preserving the integrity of the game world. We heard you all loud and clear on this – do something about the cheating. Over the years unscrupulous actors have taken advantage of tools that go far beyond what our Terms of Service and Rules of Conduct allow. These actors take advantage of unauthorized programs to gain an unfair advantage. Often times these programs present a huge security risk and players unknowingly put their account credentials at risk. Our enforcement actions over the past year has shown we are serious about our commitment to ensuring a fair play experience for everyone.
Ultima Online launched nearly 30 years ago, with client technology well suited for the mid 1990s, but not so much today. The Enhanced Client offers an updated gaming experience, but many still yearn for the nostalgia of the original Classic Client. Our mission became clear – update the gameplay window size and FPS of the Classic Client to be on par with the gaming standards of today.
Over the past year, the entire renderer of the Classic Client has been refactored – upgrading from the original software renderer to GPU rendering. This presented an enormous lift. Character movement, how the gameworld is rendered in real time, creature animations, menus, terrain, tileart – everything had to be adjusted.
We have been working round the clock on this project because we know how important it is. The team is testing and building new versions of the Classic Client every day. Our promise to you is simple – release an upgraded version of the Classic Client that is enjoyable from a modern gaming experience. Increase the FPS and gameplay window size while preserving the stability of the client.
Our goal was to release a public test version this month – but we’re not quite there yet. This is disappointing for us because we are so excited to share this client with you. You also deserve an update on the progress which we hope you’ll enjoy as much as we have. As we still work though fixing various bugs we want to showcase the enhancements we currently have. Visit the all new Teasers & Trailers channel of the Official Ultima Online Discord to check them out!
When we are confident in a suitable & stable beta candidate everyone will get a chance to try it. From there, our plan will be relying on the community to guide our roadmap on Classic Client quality of life & feature upgrades as we move into 2027 and beyond.
Thank you so much for being part of this community, and see you in Britannia.
-UO Team