Amazon Game Studios has released a New World update that aims to make flipping areas into faction conflicts more difficult. The update also brings plenty of bug fixes, both for the game itself and for its in-game store.
What's in this New World update?
Unfortunately, this isn't the New World update that's bringing the promised free server transfers. Amazon says it's still "working tirelessly" on transfers and will have more to reveal when they're ready. In the meantime, this update brings an adjustment to influence gain rates, meaning you'll need to work harder to flip an area into a conflict state. Specifically, if you're part of an attacking faction, you'll notice your influence increases much less quickly, and if you're defending an area, your influence will decrease less rapidly too. This should make conflicts feel a little less prevalent.
There are also a ton of bug fixes in the latest update. Some of them are pretty fun; the devs have fixed an issue wherein players could "respawn as a corpse", for example, and you'll now meet significantly more resistance from the tier 3 fishing chest when you hook it. The New World patch notes also make reference to an issue whereby the Ice Pylon ability would not "cool down" appropriately, and nobody seems to have made any puns about it. I'd call that a missed opportunity. You'll also find a few fixes related to game AI processes and the in-game store, so be sure to check out the full patch notes to see everything that's changed.
What's next for New World?
The next major New World feature to look forward to is almost certainly the upcoming free server transfer implementation. At launch, New World quickly amassed over 500,000 concurrent players on Steam, leading to extremely long queue times. In an effort to combat the problem, Amazon added new servers to the game and promised that within two weeks of launch, players would get a free server transfer to move their character anywhere they wanted. Unfortunately, the transfers were delayed indefinitely earlier this week, so players are now waiting on tenterhooks to see when Amazon will allow them to change their world.
We'll bring you more on the New World server transfers as soon as we get it. Until then, you can pick up the game right now on Steam for $39.99. It's been a runaway success, enjoying over 900,000 concurrent players at its peak and becoming the most played Steam game of 2021. Naturally, those numbers have started to dwindle a little more now we're further away from launch, but New World is still hitting a very healthy concurrent player peak of around 500-600,000 players per day. Looks like Amazon's MMO isn't going away anytime soon.
Are you playing New World? How are you finding it? Let us know in the comments below!
