Amazon Games is making some big changes to New World, and the current MMO player base doesn’t like it. In light of what looks like a presentation shift towards an ARPG and new console ports, current PC players are calling on Amazon due to a lack of support, and taking their concerns to the Steam user reviews.
Confusion about the future of New World stems from the revamp’s reveal and the updated Aeternum FAQ. The updated version of the site simply states “New World: Aeternum is an action RPG,” while anyone playing since 2021 can tell you it’s a fantasy MMO. An MMO can have ARPG elements of course, but short and decisive statements like this have seemingly led to uncertainty. Player concern also stems from a lack of communication in recent months on the game.
All previous content will still exist in New World, but the game will receive myriad updates to its systems when Aeternum launches. The revamped version of New World hasn’t been met with a positive reaction from existing players.
Before the Aeternum announcement on Friday June 7, New World had 235,000 Steam reviews over its lifetime, 70% of which were positive – the game’s rating based on 500 reviews from the previous 30 days was ‘mixed.’ Since the Aeternum announcement, however, the overall reception has dropped to ‘mixed’ and just 10% of the 3,400 recent reviews are positive, pulling that rating down to ‘overwhelmingly negative.’
With an all-time peak playercount of 913,634 on Steam at launch, New World quickly leveled out to somewhere in the range of 20,000 for a few years, steadying below 10,000 at any given time over the last few months.
“Yes they are adding a new raid, 725 gear score, swimming (this is not content), and a few other [quality-of-life] improvements (also not content). But after seven months of keeping us in the dark, this is not enough,” player ‘Mr_Clexxer’ writes. “Years of disappointment, and this was your one and final chance to redeem yourself. You failed.”
“The developers have ignored their community for years. Updates take far too long, and when they do arrive, they are often riddled with bugs,” ‘H0lyBanana’ adds. “We have been waiting all year for the ‘big’ update that would bring players back, as the game has been severely lacking in content for a long time. But the big announcement turned out to be a console port.”
The New World: Aeternum revamp is set to launch on Tuesday October 15, with the Rise of the Angry Earth DLC required to get the new version and all its content at no cost.
While we wait to see what New World: Aeternum does to the game, we’ve also got some new MMOs you can try, alongside some upcoming PC games to put on your list.
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