Amazon Game Studios' upcoming MMORPG, New World, has been delayed to August 31. The title was expected to launch this spring, but the team is hoping to use the extra time to make "substantial improvements."
New World has seen a lot of change over the past few months as the developer worked to incorporate feedback from players into the game. The combat system has been modified, quest variety has increased, fishing was added as a non-combat activity, and the crafting system saw a complete overhaul. However, it sounds like some of the end-game features aren't quite up to standards and need a bit more time in the oven.
"We’ve been hard at work on compelling end-game features we believe are important to include at launch," wrote the dev team. "These features won’t be ready for the Spring timeframe that we had communicated. With that in mind, we will release New World on August 31, 2021. With this extra time, we’ll be able to add these substantial improvements while polishing and fine-tuning the whole game before we open Aeternum’s shores to the world."
In the meantime, New World's alpha will continue in the coming months and is expected to expand to EU servers on March 30. A closed beta will follow on June 20 – if you've pre-ordered the game, that's when you'll finally have a chance to dive into the MMO action.
The closed beta sounds like it'll include a surprising amount of content. Here's what Amazon Game Studios said will be available:
- Ebonscale Reach (End-game location)
- Expeditions (Five player instances)
- Outpost Rush (20 v 20 battles)
Amazon Game Studios said to stay tuned in the coming months for more info about the closed beta and all the content that'll be available prior to launch.
New World was originally scheduled to release in August 2020, although it was subsequently delayed to early 2021. That's now been revised to August 2021, and it's safe to say there's a fair bit of skepticism surrounding the tumultuous project. Amazon's last foray into gaming didn't go so well, and New World's imperialist narrative has already struck a chord with much of the community.