Although New World is nearly three months old at this point, Amazon's first MMO has seen plenty of ups and downs already. New World's initial launch exceeded expectations, catching on with major streamers, hitting big concurrent player numbers, and generally saw a lot of success. Unfortunately, those high player numbers crippled the servers, forcing Amazon to quickly spin up more while also dealing with major issues like long queues, server problems, and in some cases, causing GPUs to crash or fail.
Over time, Amazon nailed down many of these launch window problems through constant updates as well as content additions like the Into The Void update, players have found other problems dragging down the experience. Game breaking bugs and glitches, such as one that allowed players to undermine the game's economy by duplicating gold and materials haunted New World for quite a while, threatening to sink the game. With the population continuing to decline, Amazon has reiterated that it has more updates in the works, including numerous quality of life changes.
In a recent interview, New World game director Scot Lane discussed Amazon's focus on how to improve the game while also dealing with the current bugs and issues. Naturally, the onslaught of exploits and bugs have taken a bigger portion of the team's focus than originally planned, though the studio has plenty of updates and content on the horizon. For one, Amazon has heard plenty of feedback regarding adding more content for lower level and solo players, which will be addressed through alternative quest lines and gameplay focused around the single player experience.
Quality of life updates is also another major area of focus, with Lane highlighting the fact that a recent update increased the run speed of all characters on roads. Other planned additions include a way to connect players looking for expeditions, additional quest and crafting markers, accessing the inventory while running, as well as further map improvements. Fans will also be able to participate in a unique Winter Convergence Festival event as well. Lane goes on to confirm that many of these updates were taken from fan feedback through the various social media channels like Twitter and the New World subReddit.
We also need to improve the experience in the early and mid-game, especially for solo players, and we’ve already begun working on content for that. Our goal is to keep responding to what players ask for – feedback from players will continue to help shape New World’s direction.
While these updates will no doubt be a welcomed addition once they're ready, the game still has a ways to go before the fanbase will be satisfied. Over on Steam, New World's recent reviews have settled on Mixed, with many players complaining about recent nerfs to loot and chests in the endgame, which caused many to update their review score to be negative. Some fans have even petitioned developers to host a livestream, playing through some of the end game content such as the Myrkgard zone in the hopes of them running into some of the more problematic encounters.
New World is available now on PC.
Source: PCGamesN