Amazon Game Studios has been having a tough time with New World since the MMO was released in September. While a few glitches or bugs in such a massive game would be understandable, New World has seen every issue under the sun from long wait times, bots stealing resources and a continuously broken economy. The title lost 70% of its playerbase in its first month, and the development team is fervently trying to lure some of these people back. In a new hour-and-a-half-long December update video, the dev team is highlighting what players can expect in 2022, including gameplay changes, continued fixes, new weapons, and plenty more.
Studio head Rich Lawrence speaks at length about the game’s issues in the video, mentioning that rushed fixes have only managed to cause more problems. “We’ve done 19 patches since release, which is kind of a blistering pace. What we’ve been trying to do is balance new features as much as we can in with our fixes. And what we’ve discovered is we have a rate limit. We are going too fast, honestly,” Lawrence stated. Going forward, the team plans on focusing more on ensuring that patches are completely ready for release.
Narrative lead Rob Chestney explains that New World will see its “first chapter” completed soon, and specific trade skill quest lines will be coming to the game soon. Fast travel changes are coming, including more fast travel points and undiscovered shrines being viewable on the player map.
New weapons will be added soon, including the Blunderbuss and a unique type of greatsword. Daggers are currently being developed, but are not quite ready for release.
Players ready for new content should keep an eye out for Mutators, or weekly modifies to enemies within the game’s Expeditions. For example, certain enemies may begin to explode when killed, which players will need to avoid. Another example would be a curse that limits or modify a player’s abilities.
See the full video below:
New World is currently available for the PC.