After Amazon’s first big game project Crucible effectively crashed and burned, Amazon’s upcoming MMO New World has even more to prove than it did when it was first announced.
In comparison to most fantasy worlds we’ve grown accustomed to in MMOs these days, New World dials it down a notch. The entire game takes place on Earth and player characters are all human; swords, bows, and guns seem to be more common than magic; and the active combat requires aiming and timing, dodge rolls, and blocks.
Here’s everything we know about New World:
Release Date
New World is currently planned to launch in the Spring of 2021. It was originally slated for May and then August of last year, but feedback from beta players convinced Amazon to push it back further and add more content.
“We want to ensure that the most dedicated players have plenty of middle and endgame experiences as they venture through Aeternum. We want our players to feel completely immersed in the game, and know that our studio stands for quality and lasting gameplay you can trust—and that means added time to get things where we want them before we fully release,” studio director Rich Lawrence wrote.
New World’s official beta will be available at some point later in 2021 along with the full game only on Microsoft Windows. Those who preordered got to play the full version of New World (as it currently stood) for a limited time window in the summer of 2020.
Trailer
Here’s the closed beta trailer:
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Story
Players will begin their journey washed up on the shores of Aeternum, an island of legend which contains veins of a magical mineral that both empowers and corrupts.
There are ancient ruins left behind by an ancient civilization (and guarded by their skeletons), natural creatures enhanced by magic, corrupted settlers, and other threats to fight.
Gameplay
There’s a PvP territory control element to New World, but it isn’t a totally player-driven sandbox. If you want, you can spend all of your time-fighting monsters, leveling up, and finding or crafting new gear. You can group up with other players to take on world events or attempt a boss fight.
If you want to fight other players in the open world, you can turn on your PvP flag once you join one of the world’s three factions.
Amazon says that we’ll share the world with “over 1,000” players at a time.
New World is available for pre-order on Amazon, and it’s also listed directly on Steam. With no official release date announced yet, we can only speculate that we will be able to battle for Aeternum sometime soon this year.