Amazon delays MMO New World to August

Amazon Game Studios has delayed the release of MMO New World from May to August 2020.

The delay follows the company’s shift to remote working in order to help combat the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

A closed beta for the PC game, which is set on a haunted island called Aeternum during the 17th century, has also been pushed back to July.

“Like most of you, things have changed pretty dramatically for us in the way we work and live these past few months,” game director Scot Lane said in a video update (below).

“Due to COVID-19 restrictions our entire team has been transitioned to working from home.

“We’re still working hard and we’re making progress, but because game development is so collaborative and highly technical, the remote work situation has exposed some problems we’re still trying to work through.

“As a result, we’ve had to make the difficult decision of pushing New World’s launch date to August 25, 2020.”

In December, Lane said Amazon Game Studios hadn’t yet considered the possibility of bringing New World to consoles.

The sandbox MMO is the latest in a series of games to be delayed due to the coronavirus. In late March, Xbox Game Studios delayed the Minecraft Dungeons and Wasteland 3 release dates, and more recently Sony delayed flagship PS4 exclusive The Last of Us Part 2 indefinitely.

It was recently reported that the launch of Amazon’s unannounced game streaming platform, codenamed Project Tempo, could slip into 2021 due to disruption caused by the coronavirus.