On September 28th, exactly one month ago, Amazon’s big MMO New World was released. We at MeinMMO take a look at the current state of the game.
What does New World do well? New World offers a refreshing take on the MMORPG genre. Instead of countless skill bars, your two weapons each have three skills.
Which of these weapons you want to play with is entirely up to you, as there is no class system. In New World, you are what you wear. If you want to throw fireballs in heavy armor, that’s just as possible as swinging a battle axe in a cloth robe.
New World has managed to ensure that none of these builds feel truly useless. Whether they are well-balanced is another question, but you can’t go wrong with your choice of equipment.
A central point in the MMORPG is crafting and gathering resources. You level up an impressive 17 life skills from fishing to engineering, none of which are useless. Leveling these professions and skills feels incredibly satisfying, which is not least due to the game’s great sound design.
Additionally, there is a world that feels very alive. This is not only due to the dense vegetation and the many animals lurking through the forests, but also to the faction system.
In ongoing wars, the three factions of New World fight for dominance in individual settlements and can exert massive influence on their development, as long as they control a settlement.
This way, even as a bystander in the wars, the island of Aeternum feels truly alive. Territories constantly change hands, settlements look different, and crafting stations are rated up and down.
This is how New World creates a world where players enjoy spending time. The only issues lie with the activities in this beautiful New World, but more on that later.
How was the launch of New World: The launch of the new MMORPG brought impressive numbers. On October 3rd, the Sunday after release, 913,634 players were playing New World simultaneously. This places it at 5th in the all-time peaks on Steam (via SteamDB).
But there wasn’t just positive news at the launch of the game. Most of these players were unable to play at all. The culprit was massive queue times, as each server could only accommodate around 2,000 players simultaneously.
Some fans therefore spent over 10 hours in queues before they could finally play. Although Amazon regularly released new servers, the problem persisted for a good two weeks.
This caused a snowball effect since players logged out only when absolutely necessary. Fans would literally jam their W key and would rather run against a wall all night than get kicked by the AFK timer, thus having to queue again.
This certainly did not improve the problem, as the queues only dwindled slowly if players no longer logged out.
Now, most of the queues are a thing of the past and anyone who wants to play New World can do so. This is largely because the rush for the MMORPG is no longer as great as it was at launch.
How many people are currently playing New World?
This is the current situation: Currently, exactly one month after the release on October 28th, 375,482 people are still playing New World in the 24-hour peak. So a little less than half of those who played during the big surge at launch.
Currently online – at 11:30 AM – there are a total of 140,510 players, at a time when it is neither prime time in the USA nor in Europe.
Player numbers have remained relatively stable over the last two weeks between 375,000 and 550,000 users in the 24-hour peak. Thus, New World is still placed well above other genre representatives on Steam, such as Bless Unleashed or Final Fantasy XIV and even above the hit GTA 5.
Why are player numbers decreasing? That a game with such huge hype before launch experiences a relatively quick drop in player numbers is the most normal thing in the world. But what are the reasons in the case of New World?
With over 900,000 people, many joined from the start who only wanted to try the game and quickly realized that they weren’t satisfied.
Already one week after release, player numbers fell by an average of about 200,000 players. This is mostly due to people who no longer want to play New World or those who just wanted to check it out.
Many players are currently leaving the game because there is little to do in the endgame. A problem that not only New World has. Other newer MMORPGs like Swords of Legends Online or Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis have lost fans for the same reason.
Players who have reached level 60 are currently leaving New World rapidly, as the title has some issues that are only noticeable at the maximum level:
- The large max-level PvP mode Outpost Rush was long disabled due to bugs and is still so
- The corruption portals at level 55 were buggy for a long time and could not be closed
- One could not craft keys to enter the two level 60 expeditions
- In PvP wars, many people exploited bugs to cheat their way to victory. This was frustrating for many players
These are possible reasons why the player numbers are currently slowly declining. More and more people are reaching level 60 and thus the endgame; Amazon should come up with something soon.
At least the Outpost Rush is supposed to come back soon and the corruption portals can also be closed again. More and more bugs have been fixed gradually, whether it will be enough remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, New World is currently not in danger. Even though the numbers have dropped, the current player counts are still very good. A month after release, New World is doing well in terms of numbers.
What do the players say? The Reddit page for New World is large and well-visited. Many different topics are discussed there. Many of them also relate to bugs, missing content, or balancing issues.
We have picked out some comments that reflect the current state of New World quite well.
- The user Journeymaker writes (via reddit): ‘I switched from town project quests to being just a hunter and gatherer. I spend all my time hunting animals and using every one of their drops. It’s fun and profitable. […] You can really enjoy the crafting and gathering, and I feel like that’s the only part of the game that isn’t somehow broken. It’s bizarre, but I love it.’
- User doctapeppa adds (via reddit): ‘I play to relieve stress, to relax, and to make new friends. I expected that from New World, but what I got was frustration and boredom. I really enjoyed the early levels of New World. The world feels good, the game runs smoothly, and I had fun. But the further I went, the worse the game got. […] By level 39, the game really starts to annoy. And my guild mates at level 60 only back that up. […] I rarely have such mixed feelings about an MMO.’
- A possible solution is provided by the user IamRadamanthy (via reddit): ‘I was about to quit New World, but then I found a solution. Like many others, I was extremely bored at level 60 and wondered what was causing that. Was it me or the game? Did I have the wrong expectations? It’s probably a mix of everything. Because all I did was rush to level 60 as fast as possible, grind the best gear and optimize everything possible. […] But in doing so, I skipped everything that is fun. I have now started again, on a different server. I read everything, take my time, even take notes. Now I’m only back at level 41, but I’m having so much more fun than before.’
New World – Conclusion after one month
If you have spent more time in the game or engaged with it, a very confusing picture of New World emerges. Therefore, even a month later, it is still hard to say whether the game will be successful in the long term or not.
The current conclusion is as follows:
In conclusion, one can say that New World is still in pretty good shape one month after release. The servers are well-populated, but not so full that you have to queue. Player numbers are generally looking good.
Many of the problems that the game had at launch have already been fixed by Amazon. Nonetheless, there are a lot of issues that still remain in the game. The developers communicate very rarely about future developments. A roadmap for new content or similar is still completely lacking.
The player experience starts off great and hardly drops as you progress to level 60, but once there, many players lose their enjoyment of New World. Whether one has fun with the game in the long term now largely depends on how one plays it.
New World had a phenomenal start on Steam and still stands strong a month later despite many issues. Amazon now needs to react, smooth things over, fix bugs, and rethink the balancing. If they then also provide a roadmap with promising content for level 60 players, the MMORPG has a good chance to hold its position high for a long time.
What do you think? Have you played New World or are you still playing it? What level are you at? What are you doing at level 60? Feel free to let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO.
MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch also likes the new MMO but criticizes the lack of a roadmap: New World needs a roadmap and quickly.
