KI Live Rundown 11/20/25

[STATE OF THE GAMES]
**Wizard101 US PC** – Darkmoor is now on Live Realm! It's been wonderful to see it come together in-game.
**Pirate101** – There's not much to update you on... yet. They had their last big update in August with a level cap update. They're hard at work on the next update coming soon, alongside initial work on the update after that. Stay tuned.
**Ravenwood Academy** - They had an amazing demo at PAX. There's so much more to show off, and they're excited to do more.
**Wizard101 EU/Console** - They were the 3rd most downloaded F2P game on PlayStation last month. They weren't able to take down Fortnite at #2 or Battlefield at #1, but they're overwhelmed with the amount of players they've been getting on console. They are working on deploying new server clusters to tackle server load immediately. They should be almost through with all of the major issues. Nintendo Switch won't happen until they have the queue sorted out and the servers are ready. It's still possible it will release this year, but we'll see. Once they release Switch and get the new update translated to EU, it is slated for very early next year, then they'll get it into certification for consoles as quickly as possible. They'll improve the velocity as they get better with their pipelines.

__Special Guests:__ Joel (Decius) and Ben (Ratbeard)

- KingsIsle Lives will be a little bit shorter going forward.
- Huge thanks to the writing team for the fantastic story of Darkmoor. The art was out of this world compared to... some other worlds. Sound was spot on. The marketing and web team did a great job on the microsite. Thank you for playing Darkmoor, but also a huge thanks to all who worked on it. Huge thanks to everyone playing on console, it has been a much bigger reception than they ever could've anticipated or imagined. Thanks for sticking through the bugs. Almost every major bug is now fixed and they're working on the smaller things. As soon as Nintendo gives them the go ahead, they'll let you know, it's in their hands right now. They're also working on getting the next two updates out on EU. They're working harder on the EU updates to get them out faster thanks to console. EU translations can take 30-90 days depending on the update's complexity. Once it's been confirmed everything's good, they go EU live. Then they start working on integrating into console. It could take 14-90 days for certification. Once they've passed all three console platform certifications, they'll launch the update on console.
- They're working on a feedback tool and have made great progress on it. They're also working on a monthly community update via Discord. Not only will they round up all news instead of checking fifteen different resources, they'll summarize all concerns and read it back to you. They're trying to drive home open dialogue and making sure you feel like you're being listened to. Emma is also doing a great job on update notes. They'll be providing more backstory over development changes in the future too, as many concerns are about how players don't understand why a change is being made.
- The main focus of today's KI Live is catchup. It's been a while since it's happened and they want to address questions.
- The Shadow Magic rework has associated certain Hanging Effects with specific Schools. Is the goal to make the specific Hanging Effects more useful for particular Schools, like Traps with Myth? It's not about optimal playstyle. They're making closer associations, but not looking to pigeonhole people into specific Hanging Effects. They wanted DoTs with Fire, HoTs with Life, etc. But don't feel pigeonholed into playing a School to leverage those effects. They hope Weaving helps with that. It might be better to use a specific School, but Ratbeard doesn't think the PvE experience requires optimal play at all. The game is designed to let you play however you want.
- They're working on a native PlayStation client to make themselves futureproof going forward. That will happen sometime next year, and your account should work flawlessly between the PS4 version and the PS5 version. Joel started on this project about three years ago, and no one could get a PS5. At the time, the PS4 outnumbered the PS5 by a huge amount, and they just couldn't get a PS5. It only became 50/50 this year, though it's about 70/30 for PS5 vs PS4 on their end.
- The Events are normally created by the design team or Gary, and they work to get them integrated properly into the game. Joel would love some unique holiday or seasonal Events. They have years and years of Beastmoon ready to go. They have other Events planned too, but need to test them and such.
- Can we expect new Beastmoon maps in the near future? They finally reached the end of all the Beastmoon forms, which no one thought they'd reach. Cam still has balancing to do, but... they'd like to continue Beastmoon since it's extremely popular, but they might want to try something different. They started with Hunt, then Mayhem, and Ratbeard thinks there's something new to add to Beastmoon. If there's a new map, it'll come hand in hand with a new Event most likely. However, they'll probably let it run stable for a while until they look at expanding Beastmoon later. A new map will likely come with something new to do in Beastmoon.
- There's a very high barrier to entry with PvP. Any plans to address that? They do view PvP as an endgame activity, so unless they change the way they think about it, it wouldn't be something where the barrier to entry is lowered if you're not at endgame. But they've heard the player concerns, and the design team feels like they should lower the barrier to entry. How they will do that is still to be determined. PvP and Advanced are still going through a lot of changes. They don't want to push players into it until it's stable, but they feel that they're very close, which is why they should look into making it more accessible for more people. They have started those discussions, and Roberto will be handling it.
- When will old Bundles and Packs be updated to match the new level cap? They did that this year with the Marleybone Motorist pack, people seemed to like it. They thought about updating old packs that have old gear templates, and they need to make sure old things fit the new approach. To do that, they need time from the system designers, Dom and Cam, to go back and make those new stat levels for those packs. They'd love to do it, they just need to find time.
- Any plans to optimize on Linux, especially with news about the Steam Machine? The Steam Deck actually already plays Wizard extremely well. They're not done with optimizations yet. They were working on console to bring some of that back to the Steam Deck. They changed the requirements, so they decided to focus on console going. They plan on going back in 2026 and getting it up to the green checkmark, meaning it's fully supported. It should also run well on the Steam Machine since they're the same OS. Joel is excited for it since he uses the Steam Deck a lot. He'll post about it on the Discord, and they might have special Test Realms just on Steam for these kinds of things going forward.
- Anything they want to add about the Switch release? They're waiting on Nintendo. Hopefully it's good. But they'll see, Nintendo keeps finding new gotchas to get on them despite them usually not being valid points. They'd also love to start working on a Switch 2 version, but they can't start working on it until they get it. They're on the waitlist.
- Can we expect Portal of Peril to return? They're working on it right now. They have designers working on it, but also new tech under the hood to help them sort out some of the problems they had with the gauntlets they adapted. Their goal is to get it to the point where it runs smoothly and bug-free. They're just being extremely careful about that. They're building them from the ground up with the new tech. They will not bring it back until they're satisfied that they're ready to go.
- [P101] Pirate101 on console when? There are a lot of things that need to happen, and the way Pirate's version of the engine works needs to change to even get to the point they can put it on console. Their plans next year are to start updating some of those backend things to at least get the 64 bit version out and have it working properly on Macs. Once the team gets all of that in and working, they can start discussing putting it on console. If that takes a year, three years, they don't know the timeline yet. They'd have to see which console they'd want to put it on, or if they should focus on something else entirely. They currently don't have any short-term plan to put it on console. If everything was perfect, that'd be next, but there's so much work needed to be done before they get there.
- [P101] Bug fixes, what's going on with Pirate101? Yes, they're working on a range of things and hope to provide those updates as soon as they can. Work on Pirate continues, and an update just coming out doesn't mean they can get away with not fixing bugs.
- [P101] Any hints on when the Companion Reworks come or if we get any details on them? There will be reworks and they want to do them right.
- When will Fishing become a thing again? One of the guys is doing a Fishing audit of the game, and will find all of the places that use duplicate loot tables starting with Housing, to make sure they use unique loot tables. After he finishes up housing Fishing, he will hit up all of the worlds missing Fishing or that did not get any unique Fishing things. This guy is very passionate about Fishing and Joel is excited for him to get to do it.

__CODES:__ AUTUMNFUN1125, AUTUMNLEAVES1125