It has been a hot minute since I had the chance to sit down and put my thoughts to paper. Pushing out a major update is a labour of love - but the umbilical cord has been snipped, and Im proud of the results. If you havent played Version 4.4 yet, I recommend you go do that. Because I think its pretty good, and because Im going to talk a bit about it here. A major update is an opportunity for us to do things outside the scope of small, monthly updates. That applies to scale - I think the volume of new media speaks for itself - but also more significant undertakings like new consort arcs. Nahos addition to the pool was a challenge, creatively: our approach to the harem format is to use it to write lots of different stories, and it had to be distinctly her own. The results may disappoint people who wanted a retread of Heloises saga, or something more reminiscent of anime tsundere tropes, but thats a risk we were willing to take - and plenty of other options exist for those wanting a more traditional romance. It provides tonal balance, and an option for dragons with a different sort of playstyle, and I think those are both worthwhile endeavours. With the dust cleared, our focus is now completely on Version 5.0. We already have more content ready for that than we added for 4.4, but its nature means we need to have everything ready to go before we turn the page into the new Act. I said it was planned for release later this year, which seemed a far more generous allocation of time when I first said it! But thats what I said, so thats what well do. We have all of our writers, editors, and coders planned in week-by-week to get it ready in time, and you can still expect it sometime around the festival period. If that ever has to change, youll be the first to know. In the meantime, were back to our regular update schedule. There will be a patch build arriving shortly, to tidy up our more esoteric bugs, and then a more traditional update later this month. Well see plenty more art and voice acting added in the next couple of months, but dont expect too much by way of new scenes - we are all, in absolute, committed to 5.0.