New World
Developer(s)Amazon Games Orange County[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)Amazon Games
Composer(s)
Engine
Amazon Lumberyard

Open 3D Engine

Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

New World is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Amazon Games Orange County and published by Amazon Games released on September 28, 2021.[1][3][2] The game was previously scheduled to release in May 2020 and subsequently August 2021, but was delayed until its worldwide release on September 28, 2021.[4][5] Set in the mid-seventeenth century, players colonize a fictional land modeled after the Americas.[6]

While New World was initially planned as a free-to-play game, it currently employs the standard business model of a buy-to-play game, a point of historical difference in comparison to many—mostly much older—MMORPGs that traditionally utilized subscription models in service of significant regular content updates.[7][8] The game also offers microtransactions in the form of skins along with a limited selection of both decorative and gameplay-impacting functional items for use within the player housing system.[9]

Gameplay

The players may form groups of up to five members, join one of three factions (Marauders, Syndicate, or Covenant), gather raw materials (wood, stone, animal skins etc.) from resource nodes, craft items, gain control over settlements, quest, explore the world, or fight other players or monsters.[10]

The gameplay involves no auto-locked targeting attacks and, therefore, a steady hand at aiming is required. With each level, the hostile mobs are programmed with increasingly complex and strong sequences of attacking behavior skill sets that will require the player to counter using their mana, stamina, and health with timed attacks, dodges, weapon blocks, retreats, or crawling stealth. The weapon skill tree choices are currently for bow, hammer, hatchet, great axe, fire staff, life staff, musket, blunderbuss,[11] spear,[12] sword/shield, ice gauntlet, void gauntlet, and great sword.[13]

The character levels up personal attribute skills. Diminishing returns scale as an attribute's skill level increases.[12] The player's character also levels up weapon and trade skills. The trade skills are divided into the three categories of "crafting" (weapon smithing, armoring, engineering, jewel crafting, arcana, cooking, and furnishing), "refining" (smelting, woodworking, leather working, weaving, and stone cutting), and "gathering" (logging, mining, harvesting, and tracking and skinning). There is also a "camping" skill (wilderness survival).

Three quick travel methods exist and, although no fast speed mounts are available, there is a set of skills for intermittent forward speed boosts. The player may dodge or climb most environmental objects or use the fire staff to cross large aerial spaces.

The economy centers around gold coins. The player can dispose of unwanted items through market between players in exchange for gold coins, they can "salvage" (dismantle) the items for resources, they can discard the item on to the ground, or they can make a direct trade with another player. Characters that die do not drop items, but with each combat encounter, use, or death, the player's items undergo damage. This damage can be repaired with repair items and gold coins.

The player may purchase personal housing and erect furnishings to achieve aesthetic and utility bonuses, as well as obtain a means for fast traveling to the settlement site.[14]

The game mechanics offer PvP combat with and without questing. Before leaving a safe-zone settlement, players have the option to set the "flagged state" - which will make them vulnerable to attacks from other flagged players and vice versa. PvP Flagged state is activated after 30 seconds cooldown which starts after players leave the zone of settlement.

Synopsis

New World is set in a fictional world during the 17th century during the Age of Exploration. The game is set on a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean known as Aeternum. The world is filled with resources to gather and enemies to face, from fierce creatures to rival players. At the moment, the player is able to traverse this world only by foot or via teleportation between "Shrines" located in all major settlements and different landmarks. It has a player-driven economy.

Development

New World was first revealed in September 2016, at TwitchCon. Amazon Game Studios announced they would be working on their first three PC games: Breakaway, Crucible and New World.[15] In March 2018, Breakaway was cancelled, leaving the teams to focus on the other two titles,[16] and on October 9, 2020, Relentless Studios announced the cancellation of Crucible, citing the inability to see a sustained future as the reason for cancellation.[17] The studio shifted to aid development of New World instead.[18] On February 16, 2021, it was announced that the game is set to release on August 31, 2021.[2]

The game was originally planned to be a free-to-play game, however in 2019, prior to its release, the business model has changed into the standard business model of paid games. Players who signed up for the game prior to that change received the game for free.[8]

On July 20, 2021, the game was launched as a closed beta. The following day, it was reported that many high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards manufactured by EVGA were bricked while running the game. It was theorized that the absence of an FPS limit for menu screens in the game caused the GPUs to render more than 9000 frames per second at full load (while most gaming computers run at below 240 frames per second), while fail-safes in the cards failed to prevent damage. In response, Amazon said that it would implement an FPS limit in the menu screens, while maintaining that the game itself had not damaged the cards.[19][20][21][22] Jason Langevin, a tech YouTuber (popularly known as JayzTwoCents) who first reported the issue, reported that other GPUs including the RTX 3080 Ti and various AMD GPUs were affected, and also reported that EVGA would replace all RTX 3090 GPUs bricked by the game at no cost. Langevin also investigated further by running an EVGA RTX 3090 and an MSi RTX 3090 and found that while the MSi GPU did not cross its rated power limit, the EVGA GPU went 20% above the limit.[23][24][25]

On August 4, 2021, it was announced that the game would be further delayed to September 28, 2021, to allow for additional development based on beta testing feedback.[26] The final open beta period began on September 9, 2021, and continued until September 12.[27]

Release

On September 28, 2021, Amazon Game Studios released and published New World globally. Five server regions were available on launch: Australia, East Coast of the United States, Europe, South America, and West Coast of the United States. The availability of these regions were staggered, with all becoming playable at 8:00 a.m. local time with the exception of Australia, which became available at 9:00 p.m. AEST to account for the large time zone difference.[28] On the day of the game's release, Steam recorded over 700,000 concurrent players. This proved difficult for the New World servers to handle,[29] with many players reporting extensive queue times, with New World's most popular servers occasionally reaching the 25,000-person limit. This was caused by the limited capacity in each server, which only allowed 2000 players to be connected simultaneously.[30] Amazon responded to this problem by introducing additional servers in all regions within two days of the game's release and explaining that they were undergoing tests to increase the cap from 2000. They also announced that players would be able to transfer their characters between servers for free, enabling people to begin playing on low populated servers without the risk of not being able to play on higher density servers, or with friends, later on. This assisted in alleviating the worst of the queue times, but players continued to express disapproval as PC Gamer described the problem as "far from solved".[31] In October 2021, it was reported that any account who played the game via Steam family sharing received it for free. One month later Amazon decided to disable the family sharing functionality due to an "increase of bots, gold sellers, and ban evaders". On the other hand, Amazon stated that "for players who utilize family sharing for a valid reason, we will update this post with instructions for assistance." and made it possible for selected players to continue playing New World on accounts where the game was never bought.[32]

Reception

New World received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[33] It was nominated for Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2021.[38] During 2021, New World managed to position itself in the top played games of Steam.[39][40]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryResultsRef
2021 Hollywood Music in Media Awards Best original soundtrack — video game Nominated [41]
The Game Awards Best multiplayer Nominated [42]

Notes

  1. ↑ Additional work by Relentless Studios

References

  1. 1 2 "New World Update". New World. July 10, 2020. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Minotti, Mike (February 16, 2021). "Amazon's New World delayed to August 31". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  3. ↑ A., Aries. "Amazon's New World MMO delayed into 2021". JoyFreak. Archived from the original on July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  4. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (April 9, 2020). "Amazon delays its MMO, New World, due to coronavirus lockdown". Polygon. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  5. ↑ Conditt, Jessica (December 12, 2019). "Amazon's supernatural colonialism MMO 'New World' lands in May 2020". Engadget. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ Campbell, Colin (February 8, 2019). "Amazons questionable MMO has you colonize the new world". Polygon. Archived from the original on February 8, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  7. ↑ Jagneaux, David (February 12, 2020). "New World: Everything We Know About Amazon's MMO". IGN. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2020."
  8. 1 2 Webb, Kevin. "Amazon's new video game costs $40, but some players who signed up years before launch will get it for free". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  9. ↑ Hetfeld, Malindy (May 17, 2021). "New World addresses concerns over microtransactions". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021 – via www.pcgamer.com.
  10. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (September 30, 2016). "Amazon Game Studios Announce Three Games". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Heart of Madness March PTR Announcement". New World. March 2, 2022. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  12. 1 2 "Alpha Testing Resumes!". New World. October 20, 2020. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Greatsword Showcase". New World - Open World MMO PC Game. October 12, 2022. Archived from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Character Progression". New World. June 9, 2020. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  15. ↑ Furniss, Zack (October 2, 2016). "Is Breakaway Appealing To More Than Streamers?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  16. ↑ Olivetti, Justin (March 31, 2018). "Amazon Game Studio's Breakaway is officially dead". MassivelyOP. Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Final Crucible Developer Update". Crucible. October 9, 2020. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  18. ↑ Bankhurst, Adam (October 10, 2020). "Amazon's Crucible Is Shutting Down in November 2020". IGN. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Amazon's New World is brutally bricking RTX 3090 graphics cards". Windows Central. July 21, 2021. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  20. ↑ July 2021, Austin Wood 21 (July 21, 2021). "Amazon Games insists New World is safe to play despite reports of the MMO bricking some 3090 GPUs". gamesradar. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ↑ James, Dave (July 21, 2021). "Amazon's New World MMO is reportedly killing $1,500 Nvidia GPUs". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  22. ↑ "Amazon Finds No Connection Between New World Beta and Bricked RTX 3090 Graphics Cards, Issues Fix Anyway". IGN India. July 21, 2021. Archived from the original on July 22, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  23. ↑ July 2021, Aaron Klotz 23 (July 23, 2021). "EVGA Is Immediately Replacing All RTX 3090s That Died From New World". Tom's Hardware. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ James, Dave (July 23, 2021). "EVGA confirms it's replacing all its RTX 3090s killed by Amazon's New World MMO". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  25. ↑ "EVGA Is Replacing All RTX 3090 Cards Killed By Amazon's New World". Kotaku. July 24, 2021. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  26. ↑ Tolbert, Samuel (August 4, 2021). "Amazon Games' New World delayed to September to focus on game polish". Windows Central. Archived from the original on August 4, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  27. ↑ "Announcing the New World Open Beta". New World. August 25, 2021. Archived from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  28. ↑ "New World release time – here are the MMORPG's server live times". PCGamesN. September 27, 2021. Archived from the original on July 22, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  29. ↑ Goslin, Austen (September 29, 2021). "New World's launch is proving too popular for its servers, but Amazon has a plan". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 22, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  30. ↑ "New World Suffering From Long Queue Times". Game Rant. September 28, 2021. Archived from the original on July 22, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  31. ↑ Wilde, Tyler (September 30, 2021). "New World server status day 2: thousands are still waiting in queues, dreading errors". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  32. ↑ "[Notice] Family Sharing Update". New World Forums. November 4, 2021. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  33. 1 2 "New World for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  34. ↑ Koch, Cameron (September 28, 2021). "New World Review: (Faction) War Never Changes". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  35. ↑ Moss, Gabriel (November 10, 2021). "New World Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  36. ↑ Brown, Fraser (October 20, 2021). "New World review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  37. ↑ Gardner, Elliot (October 8, 2021). "New World review – a shiny new player in the MMO game". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  38. ↑ Ankers, Adele (November 16, 2021). "The Game Awards Nominations Announced". IGN. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  39. ↑ Ali Jones (September 28, 2021). "New World is already the fifth most-played Steam game ever". gamesradar. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  40. ↑ "New World is Still One of the Most-Played Games on Steam". Game Rant. October 19, 2021. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  41. ↑ "2021 MUSIC IN VISUAL MEDIA NOMINATIONS". Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  42. ↑ "The Game Awards Nominees: 'Deathloop,' 'Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart' Lead 2021 List". Deadline. November 16, 2021. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2023.

Further reading

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