While the real housing market may still be languishing, KingsIsle Entertainment has made the dream quite accessible for players of online virtual world Wizard 101. A new housing system called Wizard Castles and Lands has gone live, and enables players to customize their own personal space. The new feature ranges from a dorm room to luxury private floating island villas that can be decorated inside and out, complete with blossoming cherry trees, sculptures and a car in the driveway.

All players, including Free-to-play, start out with a dorm room at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts with hundreds of decorating options from wallpaper to in-game trophies. Modest and luxury private Castles and Lands can be purchased with in-game gold, giving players a virtual space to invite their friends and showcase their Wizard 101 style. Beginning in the fantasy-inspired world of Wizard City, a turtle character, Buxley Turtleton, is the Castles and Lands vendor who allows players to choose a type of Wizard City-themed house. Each world in the game will have a turtle character that sells the Castles and Lands which correspond to the world the player is in at that time. Players can teleport to their own house or over to a friend’s house via their Friends List and decorations can be obtained through many methods including in-game gold, PvP Arena Points, quest rewards, exploration, defeat of selected bosses, common or rare enemy drops and Crown (micro transaction) purchase.