DCUO Producer's Letter Talks About The Free Next Episode And A Lot More

The next episode of DC Universe Online will be its 41st content drop and be titled House of Legends. It arrives in August and marks "a significant departure from the more traditional episode formats," as was described in today's development update from Senior Producer Landon "Panderus" Falls.

There will be the usual story and new content in Episode 41, as well as the House of Legends, a new shared hero/villain social hub. There's also a new Allies system that allows you to summon iconic characters like Cyborg, The Flash, Zoom, and Flashpoint Wonder Woman to your side to aid you in battle, and a new Quick Play button allows you to find a group as quickly as possible, as chosen from recent or highlighted content.

But wait, there's more! (Seriously, there's a long list of changes.) Combat Rating Relevancy is gone, as are loot lockouts for what's defined as "not-end-game content." That means you'll be able to earn unlimited Source Marks, and one of the Quick Play options will be labeled Omnibus and queue you for not-end-game content.

Meanwhile, selected old not-end-game content will be upgraded to end-game quality through the "Save The Universe" format, offering commensurate rewards. And all traditional episode rewards will be present in this update, including gear, feats, and styles inspired by The Monitor and Tempus Fuginaut.

As promised, new episodes are now free for all players starting with Episode 41, with daily login rewards for all -- more for members, of course -- and other perks for free and paid players.

After Episode 41 hits live servers next month -- though Falls admitted that he "would not be surprised if we do not hit our internal goal for our launch date based on the scope and complexity of these systems" -- the emphasis will naturally be on Episode 42 later in the fall. The team will also work on the PlayStation 5 client, which will arrive with Episode 43 sometime next year.

There's lots of room on the schedule for celebrations, including fall, winter, and anniversary events, as well as Wonder Woman's 80th birthday in October.

All that work requires a lot of humans, and Dimensional Ink is expanding its team to take care of it all, with plenty of job listings on the studio's careers page. It's all a lot to absorb, so if you're a DCUO player, make sure to read the whole letter on the website.