Thirteen years of memories and pure nostalgia is something else.
The other day i had to explain to a player why he lost the items in his house that he had just placed the night before. I had to explain to him how the housing system, including lock downs and secures work. Talk about second hand nostalgia!

I believe i was 13 years old when i was first introduced to Ultima Online that changed me Forever, and after running UOForever or almost anything for 13 years you really get a pure understanding of the insides and outs of it all. The amount of lessons i’ve learned over these 13 years cannot be really taught, given or even bought. It’s just going through all the ups, downs and many challenges while trying to stay true to yourself and those around you. For me, i think one of the most difficult challenges has been trying to balance nostalgia while implementing new improved content. So far i think we’ve done a decent job at it, but it is definitely a challenge. This directly reflects on attracting old nostalgic players vs new players as well.

Ultima Online Forever has been in unchartered territory for some time now and we’ve been having a lot of fun and successes, but also failures over the years. To me, failing is never a bad thing. After all, how does one learn if they do not fail. Sadness, hurt, failure- Without these we would never truly feel what success and happiness is. With failure, as long as you get up, try again and again… and again- It’ll work out. Well…. That’s how it’s been for me anyways.

This community never ceases to amaze me with their grit and willingness to help one another, even if the day before, they were res-killing each other while frantically dming staff about it. What i’ve seen is when it truly comes down to it, we are all here for the same reason and want the same things. We want this community to not just keep going, but continue to strive at being better. After all, i think we all use Forever as a place to escape into from the everyday doom and gloom that seems to be getting worse by the day.

Speaking of everyday doom and gloom, i’d like to touch on just how important positivity is. Negativity is something that has always outweighed most things in this world. In fact, most people are more likely to bond over negative banter than anything else. It sells, it gets clicks- but it takes its toll.

So this year on Ultima Online Forever we are going to really hit hard on keeping this environment and community a very positive place for everyone to come to. Some of you may remember the many times i’ve brought up the reason UOForever was made in the first place. It was about coming home, having dinner with your family, putting your kids to bed and being able to login to escape the everyday “grind” or high speed chase of the world. Somewhere you can just relax and and enjoy.

That is going to be my main focus for 2026 for Ultima Online Forever and of course, more content. We will be touching more on this in February so keep your eyes peeled for that!

As a team we are going to be working on communicating with each other better. I’ve had some hard times in this last year personally, our team has gone through a lot but we always seem to come out of it a little better in the end- and that’s what matters. We of course will continue to work on our communication with all of you as well. What i can tell you is i know each member of this team feels incredibly fortunate and blessed to be in the position we are because of this glorious community. We truly are thankful and we will continue to do better.

We will face many more challenges ahead but after thirteen very fast years, i can honestly say we are ready for them. So bring on the challenges, good and bad.
From the heart, here’s to another 13 years!

Now here’s a look at what the near future looks like:

Phase 5 – Buc’s Den: No Safe Harbor

January 16th
This will be the last phase before the final “Rebuild” phase.

Forever’s 13th Year Anniversary

January 18th
Our 13th Year Anniversary Celebration!
We will be releasing the Lute of Lost Harmonies & The Idol of Endless Forms Talismen. You will also be able to start obtaining all the new relics.

Final Phase 6 – “The Rebuild”

January 25th.
The Final Phase of the Buccaneer’s Den event will unleash. During this part of the phase you will all take part in rebuilding the “New Buccaneer’s Den”. With this, we will be releasing a new Boss Creature that will reside within Buccaneer’s Den which will be key to obtaining such treasured relics.

Hardware Upgrades

January 26th.
We will be upgrading the Ultima Online Forever hardware across the board.

Double Island Houses

January
We will be releasing the much often asked about Double Islands. These upgrades will allow players to have two 30×30 plots on newly styled islands.

New Naval Additions

February 1st.
New naval additions will be added. (Britain Galleon anyone?)

New Tamer Additions

February
February will bring some new taming additions that should boost those who will need it for the challenges that await.

Winter Bazaar

February
The Winter Bazaar has now been pushed to February due to the amount of events that have been going on already. This works well due to the amount of rares and other drops people have been collecting during these events. It will be the perfect time to unload some of those goods!

Winter Zombieland

February
Again, we’ve pushed the Winter Zombieland to February due to the amount of events that have been put on as a whole. This just made more sense to spread some of this stuff out.

New Goals For Every Talisman

February/March
You will be able to start leveling your relics from the current max level of 10 to the new max level of 15.

Stronger Creatures

Gradually
Creatures will start gradually becoming stronger based on certain situations and environments over time. This will reap better rewards for the tougher experience.

Updated Animations

Gradually
We will be updating many of the animations across the board. While going through many of them we realized that there are some weird issues with clipping and cutting animations off which we believe is due to the CUO original code. This will be fixed gradually to make the game feel like it should.

New Announcement

February
We will be announcing how we plan to battle the on-going negativity, anger and general toxicity that not just the gaming community, but the entire internet faces daily. This has been a constant concern for us over the last recent years that only seems to be growing. We will be focusing intensely on positive environments and positivity as a whole. More to come with that soon…