New World’s slow and steady approach pushed the release date of their next major update a little too close to the release dates of other games. How will this affect the game?
New World has been following a slow and steady approach ever since they received negative reviews from both fans and critics a few months before. This backlash was the result of a barrage of quick major updates that weren’t consulted with the community beforehand. Though the change of pace was welcomed by players who still play in their New World accounts, the timing of the January updates might have come at the worst time. With dozens of new MMOs appearing and updates coming from other MMO titles, New World’s Mutators Expedition might have arrived a bit too late.
Why New World Had to Take It Slow
New World has been plagued by multiple issues weeks after its release. From unresolved bugs and glitches to unreasonable game changes, Amazon could not catch a break, and the effects were showing in their player base. Due to these multiple problems occurring one after the other, the game’s popularity took hits as thousands of players stopped playing and farming New World gold while others bombarded its steam review page with negative ratings. With its dwindling player base and reputation going down the drain, the developers changed their pacing and the way they approached updates.
The Mutators Update
The Mutators Expedition is New World’s most recent update after the Winter Convergence Festival. This new feature was the studio’s answer to the fans’ demand for variety in the game. Following months of unpopular patches and changes, Amazon Gaming Studios took their sweet time in developing this along with many others. Instead of rushing to roll out the update once they announce it back in December 2021, the gaming studio decided to start going delay the patch as long as possible for further testing and optimization.
The update featured the introduction of a new feature called Mutators Expedition and Umbral Shards. The Mutators feature were add-ons or augments given to mobs or PUIs in order to give them special attacks or abilities to help them in their battles. These augments can be buffs, special abilities, resistances, or status inflictions that aim to make battles against them harder. Though the aim of these changes was to increase the difficulty of the end-game content, it was also a rewarding update since defeating mutated opponents yields greater rewards. Meanwhile, Umbral shards are a new form of enhancing material that will be added to the game. The shards are used to increase the gear score of items past the 600 watermark.
It took almost a month before the Mutators patch arrived in the PTR servers. Even then, the update for the live servers took a few more weeks. During the update’s time in the PTR servers, Amazon consistently communicated with their community while testing and optimizing the patch based on the players’ feedback and other pieces of information gathered during the tests. When the update dropped on January 25th, the remaining players of the game had nothing negative to say about the changes and welcomed the major update.
A Little Too Late
Fans have welcomed the slow and steady approach of the developers on its current and future updates. Though the recent update was something that the game needed, the pacing of its development affected its release date which fell at the worst possible time. The release of the patch came too close to the release of other games that took the attention away from Amazon’s MMO.
The Mutators update went live the same time Broken Ranks was released in NA. Broken Ranks is a turn-based MMO that was getting a lot of scrutiny and interest from gamers before its release. Many gamers signed up to try out the game, thus taking some of New World’s players. Pokemon Legends: Arceus was released three days after the update. Even though the game is not an MMO, Arceus generated a lot of hype that took the spotlight in the gaming scene.
Another game that’s about to drop is Lost Ark. Lost Ark is a highly anticipated ARPG that’s developed by Smilegate RPG. This gaming studo partnered with Amazon to release the game to Western regions. Thousands of MMO fans have expressed their curiosity in playing the game, especially those who were burnt out or tired of New World. Even though Amazon’s own MMO is slowly stabilizing its player population at around 100,000 active players, the release of these new games is stealing away their still dwindling fan base.
New World has little control over what will happen to the MMO scene since their window of opportunity to dominate the scene has already passed. With the introduction of newer and more exciting games, it is unclear whether gamers will still be interested in farming New World gold in Aeternum. Amazon Gaming Studios will have to think of something quick and invigorating to bounce back from this crisis.
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