New World Has Been Delayed From Spring To August Amid COVID-19 Induced Quarantines

With the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines in place, a number of studios have been forced to delay releases and updates over the past month. New World, is the latest game to be delayed due to the pandemic. The 17th century colonial survival MMO was supposed to release near the end of May but has now been pushed back to August. Here’s Amazon’s official announcement:

“We have made the hard decision to delay the release of New World until August 25, 2020 and the start of Closed Beta to July. Like most of you, our entire team has been sequestered as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. While we are still making great progress, developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges. We want to make sure that we have the time needed to make New World the very best it can be for our players. As a result, we’ve chosen to delay the game’s release in order to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.”

The game’s Alpha build, however, will remain online for those participating in the Alpha test. The studio also promised to share more details about the game from now until the game’s official launch. “[. . .] The health and safety of our team is our first priority,” says Amazon. “We hope you understand our decision to protect our team during these uncertain times while we re-focus on a timeline that will ensure New World is the best possible game it can be.”

Game Director Scott Lane explains their decision to move the launch date in the video below. You can also head over to the New World official site for more details.