Amazon announced today that its online role-playing game New World is going to miss its spring release window, instead settling on an August 31 release date.
If Amazon is going to have a future in game development, it needs New World to become a hit. Last year, Amazon Game Studios released Crucible, its first major title. But the multiplayer shooter only lasted a bit more than a few months before dying.
The extra time will let Amazon add “substantial improvements while polishing and fine tuning the whole game.” It starts a closed beta July 20, which is available to anyone who preorders.
The MMO market has become a bit stagnant in recent years. Games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV remain hits, but it has been some time since a new title has disrupted the genre. New World hopes to garner fans with its fantasy world based on colonial America, although it takes place on a fictional continent and does not directly follow history.