Hello Racers,

It's been a year since the first KartRider: Drift season launched. We sincerely thank all of our Racers that have enjoyed the game in this past year, as it's thanks to you that we were able to prepare the last RISE update.

The RISE update was a big challenge for me as a director, and I'm glad to see so many of you enjoying the update and sharing your feedback. There's still a lot of work to be done, but we are collecting feedback from Racers through a variety of channels, reviewing it, and incorporating it into future updates as we continue improving the game.

In this Dev Blog, we'll outline our current plans for what's coming next, as we lead up to the summer season. Please note that the timeline and details for all of the below may change, depending on future developments, and we will continue to share more details through Dev Blogs and announcements.

First, the out-of-this-world Northeu Theme is coming in the March update.

As we mentioned in our last Dev Blog, we're adding 10 new tracks, including some tracks newly created for KartRider: Drift. We'll also be adding 3 Northeu-themed characters to race on these unique tracks. Some characters that did not receive Character Skills in the RISE update will get them in March, and we'll continue to add skills to characters over time, until eventually all characters have them.

We're also working on UI improvements for the March update, to resolve a variety of frustrations that Racers have been experiencing, and we'll keep improving the UI over the long term. We're also working hard to expand the Chat feature, although technical issues may require this feature to be delayed. If the expanded Chat isn't ready for the March update, we'll make sure you get to see the updated version as soon as possible.

Next, I'd like to share what we're preparing for May. Aside from 4 new tracks, we're aiming to improve Custom Mode, to let you experiment with a variety of configurations. We're also working on expanding the Livery system.

We also hope to create a new feature that will let Racers practice with different Speed Mode builds. Currently, you can practice your Speed Mode drifting skills in the Training Course, but it's hard to work on different Speed Mode strategies using different karts and tracks. With this new feature, it will be easier to practice and train based on Ranked Players' actual gameplay, so you can master Speed Mode and improve your skills. We're aiming to release this new feature in May, but this schedule might change, as this is already proving to be a very tricky feature to develop. We'll make sure to show this off to you as soon as it's ready.

For the summer, we're planning a larger update that includes a new Theme with 10 new tracks, and to also introduce the new Club System. With the Club System, we hope to bring like-minded Racers together, to enjoy the game in new ways and compete for additional honors and rewards. Along with that, we're also working on a special Event system, tentatively titled Faction Mode, which we'll talk more about in the future. Other than the above, there will be kart and character balancing, mobile controls and gamepad support, UI improvements, and much more.

We're always looking for feedback from our Racers to help improve our updates. We understand the frustration Racers feel with the current UI for selecting karts, characters, and tracks, especially as Character Skills and Kart Tuning has made swapping between characters and karts more appealing. We're looking closely at your feedback, and reviewing many different ideas internally to find the best way to improve them.

With the positive feedback we've gotten from Racers about the RISE update, we can't wait to bring you even more fun content. We understand that you may be disappointed when these previews and the final releases don't always line up, but we feel it's important to share with you, our Racers, what our plans are, even though the things may change during development and testing.

Depending on future developments, we may not be able to stick with the exact timeline we've outlined today, but we'll work to release additional patches once the above content is ready, and we'll let you know about any changes via our Dev Blogs or announcements first.

Once again, thank you for enjoying KartRider: Drift so far and for your support with the RISE update. Please stay tuned for our future updates, and thank you for your patience as always.

Thank you.

-Director Jaewoo Seo and the KartRider: Drift Team-