Amazon Games has a lot planned for this year. With Throne and Liberty and New World Aeternum, two major MMORPG releases are scheduled in just a few weeks for late summer 2024. But is that a good idea? MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz is skeptical and expects a delay.
The MMORPG year 2024 has some highlights to offer. Behind three of the biggest releases, Amazon Games serves as either developer or publisher.
- Throne and Liberty will be released on September 17, 2024 on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
- On October 15, 2024, New World Aeternum will follow with a new, heavily revised console version of the online role-playing game – which is also expected to be released in an improved form for PC.
- There is no release date for the anime MMORPG Blue Protocol, but the official website still displays the promise: ‘Releases 2024’ (via playblueprotocol.com).
I am looking forward to all three releases, but I get a bit anxious when looking at the schedule. It strikingly reminds me of 2021/2022 when Amazon Games released the prestigious project New World and the western version of Lost Ark within just a few months.
A History of Failures
It has been almost eight years since the responsible parties at Amazon Games announced that they wanted to invest significantly more money and energy in game development in the future. Until 2016, they had primarily developed mobile games and the licensed game ‘The Grand Tour Game’ for PS4 and Xbox.
With the MMORPG New World, the 4vs4 brawler Breakaway, and the multiplayer shooter Crucible, the studio presented several projects in a bid to realize their new ambitions. However, that did not materialize:
- Breakaway had to be buried during development.
- Crucible started so poorly that the game was sent back to beta, only to then get canceled.
- New World had a strong start on Steam, but lost a large portion of players in no time – from 913,634 simultaneously active players, it dropped to currently about 4,200 simultaneously active players.
Additionally, there are other prematurely discontinued projects like Nova, Intensity, or the MMO for Lord of the Rings, which was to be created together with Tencent. Due to this disappointing yield, Mike Frazzini, until then head of Amazon Games, had to vacate his position in March 2022.
The trailer for the release date of Throne and Liberty makes you want more:
Too Many Issues Spoil the Broth … or Something
The most successful game for Amazon Games so far is likely one that they did not develop themselves: Lost Ark reached a higher peak with its western launch in February 2022 than New World (1.325 million simultaneous active players); additionally, the isometric MMORPG managed to retain the heroes long-term on the servers better than New World.
Currently, the daily peak of Lost Ark on Steam is almost 25,500 simultaneously active players. This is not spectacularly good compared to the launch peak and player numbers of other MMORPGs, but it is definitely a bit better than New World.
However, just like the Aeternum adventure, Lost Ark has been facing problems in its western version:
- While New World suffered from generic quests, numerous issues in PvP, bugs, and gold exploits
- Lost Ark has been and still is particularly troubled by the bot plague, communication issues, unfavorable maintenance windows, patch politics and technical problems.
The major challenge when releasing and supporting two such extensive and ambitious projects within a few months: You cannot consolidate the available manpower but must split it between the two games.
This makes it harder to release the best possible version on launch day or to get the problems and issues under control at launch.
The trailer for the new Aeternum version of New World:
Lack of Trust in Amazon Games
Additionally, MMORPGs that are released on the same platforms within a short time can cannibalize each other. Those who passionately play Lost Ark will not return to New World and vice versa.
I see all these issues soon returning to Amazon Games when Throne and Liberty and New World Aeternum release on consoles (and PC) within just a few weeks. And that – just by the way – quite shortly after the launch of WoW: The War Within on August 27, 2024.
The late summer / early autumn is therefore packed with exciting MMORPG releases. A Throne and Liberty or New World Aeternum could easily get caught in the crossfire, and the chances of that increase if both versions face issues during their respective launches.
While Amazon Games now has significantly more experience than two or three years ago, the studio has so far failed to prove that they can genuinely compete with the big players in the industry and release great, long-term successful games.
Until this proof is provided, I lack trust in Amazon Games.
Is Another Delay Imminent?
Ultimately, it would not surprise me if the responsible individuals at Amazon Games consider another delay after reviewing the feedback from the recent beta testing phases of Throne and Liberty as well as New World Aeternum.
One option could be to release Throne and Liberty first only on PC to attract as many owners of PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series to the console version of New World.
Alternatively, New World Aeternum could also be released a bit later to allow for greater focus on the launch and subsequent support of Throne and Liberty.
What do you think of the situation? Would you like to try Throne and Liberty or New World Aeternum? And how do you assess Amazon Games’ previous work? Let us know in the comments! Last year in 2023, Amazon Games had to lay off about 280 employees; the developers of the various teams were probably not affected.
