Is New World Seeing a Resurgence? Steam Numbers Suggest a Significant Population Rise | MMORPG.com

System

Is New World Seeing a Resurgence? Steam Numbers Suggest a Significant Population Rise | MMORPG.com

Not long ago, New World seemed like it may be in trouble. Recently, Amazon Game Studios has released a new update, and while I would like to say that this update is the prime reason for the population resurgence of New World, the numbers show something quite different.

Read the full story here

Slapshot1188

I poked my head in over the last few days and I think they did a good job of revamping the starter areas. In many ways it feels like a new game.

I'll be hitting the Fresh Start Servers in a few weeks but the question is whether they fixed the exploits and dupes that ruined the game the first time around.

Dattelis

Slapshot1188 said:

I poked my head in over the last few days and I think they did a good job of revamping the starter areas. In many ways it feels like a new game.

I'll be hitting the Fresh Start Servers in a few weeks but the question is whether they fixed the exploits and dupes that ruined the game the first time around.

Yeah, to me it might be a good idea to assess the game 1-2 months after fresh start.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Hengist

"New World Having a Resurgence"


So is that news? I mean, I think it would be news if they released new content and even more people left. Pretty much every time an MMO releases new content (probably saving some of the 20 year old games) they see at least a brief resurgence, because people come to see what's new, or if anything has changed.

Sometimes I feel for the folks who have to come up with articles, and ideas for articles, because this one feels like a pretty big stretch. How about a check in 60 or 90 days, and see how much of the population they have retained? By the way Steven, truly do enjoy your contributions and articles here, I always enjoy your thoughts. Maybe just a lack of coffee today has me cranky! Cheers man!

For the folks who are checking it out again, hope y'all are enjoying it! It'll always been at or near my list of "almost was/could have been" enjoyable MMO's. The good was exceptionally good, but the exploits, bugs, and lack of end-game activities kind of did me in.

Kyleran

DarkZorvanReturns said:

They'd better hire someone who knows what an endgame is. Because when the new content is gone, so are most of the players again.

Without a monthly sub and a one of the worst cash shops I've seen in terms of having anything at all which might be worth buying maybe they are better off having players at max level walk away?

At least they can save in server costs when they consolidate them all again.

Iselin

It definitely has been resurging especially when you consider that May-August they couldn't crack 30K peak concurrency and they did 45K in September and 65K so far this month.

It will likely keep going up at least until the first couple of weeks in November since there seems to be a lot of interest in the fresh start servers which will open Nov. 2.

The question is how many of the new players and returnees they'll keep and for how long since the current end-game content grind is not everyone's cup of tea.

I mean... I've gone back to it recently myself mostly just getting reacquainted so I'll be ready when the FSS launch. The leveling experience is much improved and they have added quite a bit of noticeable QOL changes.

I'm enjoying myself but honestly, I have no clue how long it'll hold my attention this time. We shall see,

Jaguaratron1

I doubt it, the foundation is weak, poor combat, terrible AI, uninspired uninteresting lore and thats ignoring the poor coding and complete lack of direction the game has.

Cyberpunk 2077 is having a resurgence, NW is having a expansion blip, I dont believe that NW has anything of substance to build on but good luck to them.

Kyleran

Iselin said:

It definitely has been resurging especially when you consider that May-August they couldn't crack 30K peak concurrency and they did 45K in September and 65K so far this month.

It will likely keep going up at least until the first couple of weeks in November since there seems to be a lot of interest in the fresh start servers which will open Nov. 2.

The question is how many of the new players and returnees they'll keep and for how long since the current end-game content grind is not everyone's cup of tea.

I mean... I've gone back to it recently myself mostly just getting reacquainted so I'll be ready when the FSS launch. The leveling experience is much improved and they have added quite a bit of noticeable QOL changes.

I'm enjoying myself but honestly, I have no clue how long it'll hold my attention this time. We shall see,

Honest question here, do you see yourself spending any additional money this time around?

Outside of my $20 buy in fee I don't see myself doing so in the future.

I normally spend money in games these days, ESO, Lost Ark, FO76 all got more money in the first month than New World will likely ever get for all time.

I paid a monthly sub and bought boosters, battle passes, cosmetics and additional classes even for all 3.

Heck, I bought a one year sub in FO76 so that the unlimited crafting box would be available in case I wanted to play again,  yet I haven't even wanted to back since Pitt launch a while ago.

If you ask me, AGS is doing some wrong and their monetization model is unsustainable in the long run.

slowz2secret

that game is really fun actually, the problem is that they launched the game while the game was not finished I think, now the game is looking better

Iselin

Kyleran said:

Iselin said:

It definitely has been resurging especially when you consider that May-August they couldn't crack 30K peak concurrency and they did 45K in September and 65K so far this month.

It will likely keep going up at least until the first couple of weeks in November since there seems to be a lot of interest in the fresh start servers which will open Nov. 2.

The question is how many of the new players and returnees they'll keep and for how long since the current end-game content grind is not everyone's cup of tea.

I mean... I've gone back to it recently myself mostly just getting reacquainted so I'll be ready when the FSS launch. The leveling experience is much improved and they have added quite a bit of noticeable QOL changes.

I'm enjoying myself but honestly, I have no clue how long it'll hold my attention this time. We shall see,

Honest question here, do you see yourself spending any additional money this time around?

Outside of my $20 buy in fee I don't see myself doing so in the future.

I normally spend money in games these days, ESO, Lost Ark, FO76 all got more money in the first month than New World will likely ever get for all time.

I paid a monthly sub and bought boosters, battle passes, cosmetics and additional classes even for all 3.

Heck, I bought a one year sub in FO76 so that the unlimited crafting box would be available in case I wanted to play again,  yet I haven't even wanted to back since Pitt launch a while ago.

If you ask me, AGS is doing some wrong and their monetization model is unsustainable in the long run.

Haven't spent anything beyond the initial buy and I still have a lot of skins and some house decorations from twitch drops, Prime Gaming, freebies, and in-game events.

I guess Prime could count as spending extra but I had it before NW and the game is the least of the reasons why I have it.

I don't think AGS is too concerned with making money off NW at the moment. They haven't even begun to crank up the game store with "convenience" items. It's still almost 100% cosmetics except for the transfer tokens.

And that's a wise decision. When they bled players as they did their focus became trying to turn that around, not adding potentially controversial cash shop items that could drive even more players away.

IDK how long they will carry it without turning a profit but any losses there are a rounding error in Amazon's profit margin. If anyone can afford to carry an MMO that isn't profitable for a long while, looking for a turn-around. it's them.

Slapshot1188

I haven't spent a penny on the game as they sent me the game for free and their cash shop has nothing I'd even be slightly tempted to buy.

Tokken

So, to keep the population up their gonna have to add endgame or keep popping out expansions.

Raagnarz

I've given them $100 once so far above the $20 buy price. Given my time in this expansion and how much effort they're putting into the game I'll be giving them much more likely. When a company does right and tries to continually improve the game, all while not price gouging you, I'll support them. This is probably the single best MMO economic model. It reminds me highly of POE. Both these games are fair beyond reproach in my mind when it comes to how they make money. Whenever a company does that I give them MORE money than I usually would to support the companies and employees doing things the right way and more ethical way. Besides I want to see more games that have these types of fair cash shops and good payment models.

Kyleran

Tokken said:

So, to keep the population up their gonna have to add endgame or keep popping out expansions.

Except, they do not charge for expansions, their monetization model makes little business sense.

Tokken

Kyleran said:

Tokken said:

So, to keep the population up their gonna have to add endgame or keep popping out expansions.

Except, they do not charge for expansions, their monetization model makes little business sense.

They can't keep it up with free expanisions. Paid expansions better be good for the price we have to pay. Also, they need to add better items to the cash shop. 

Akulas

I'll play again on Fresh Start Servers when they ocme. If I stay will depend on whether AGS still hands out random bans or not. 1 wrong ban even for 5 seconds and I can still come back will result in me never returning as there are other things to worry about in life. I'm expecting the same as last time early - mid game will be fine and late game doing the same things over and over again and end game pretty much not existing.

giantessfan

Got a new computer after the last one crapped out and I am just waiting till the 8th. My last computer wasn't good enough to run it. So I am just waiting for fresh start. Downloaded though and ready to go

Dattelis

Tokken said:

Kyleran said:

Tokken said:

So, to keep the population up their gonna have to add endgame or keep popping out expansions.

Except, they do not charge for expansions, their monetization model makes little business sense.

They can't keep it up with free expanisions. Paid expansions better be good for the price we have to pay. Also, they need to add better items to the cash shop. 

I think its too 'early' to judge how their business model will be going for and HIGHLY doubt future expansions will be free going forward. I think people need to understand that AGS can aford to take an upfront loss if it means they can recover it down the line via this or whenever Throne and Liberty comes out. These games don't exist in bubbles for a company and with a business as large as Amazon, I highly doubt any of their other departs aren't feeding into this as well to cover for some loss. It would also be a hard sell for them to roll out their long-term plans given how rough NW has been for at least 6 months post launch, so they are just trying to build up some 'good will' as it were before they start trying to pry open wallets. They already said they had boosts and such planned for the shop long before the game was going to release, so they do have a plan. They just dont want a D:I moment imo.

Angrakhan

All you guys talking about what they have to do in order to be profitable are forgetting something: They are Amazon. They are AWS. They don't have server costs. Who are they going to pay? Themselves? As long as they view the game as a technology demonstration to prove to other game companies that they can host on AWS and be successful, and those companies sign up to AWS to host, then they can just eat whatever losses they have on NW and use it as a tax write off while they make profit off X number of other games hosted on AWS.

I find it interesting no one else pointed this out.

Kyleran

Angrakhan said:

All you guys talking about what they have to do in order to be profitable are forgetting something: They are Amazon. They are AWS. They don't have server costs. Who are they going to pay? Themselves? As long as they view the game as a technology demonstration to prove to other game companies that they can host on AWS and be successful, and those companies sign up to AWS to host, then they can just eat whatever losses they have on NW and use it as a tax write off while they make profit off X number of other games hosted on AWS.

I find it interesting no one else pointed this out.

As my father in law used to tell his family, just because he worked for the electric company didn't mean he got it for free at home.

Amazon would charge their own game for the cost of running the servers at the very least, likely with a overhead figure on top as well, it is just how big companies are run. (I work for one of the biggest)

You could be correct, New World might just be a marketing expense to promote their AWS service, and they would largely eat any losses, at least for the short term.

As it stands now, their model can't be paying for itself, so as someone else mentioned, change is likely one day in the future, which has been pretty much true for most online games that manage to survive for many years.

 

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

GatsuZerk

So I guess Steven Weber thinks something like this is news worthy?

This looks like a Reddit post saying, hey guys look at the steam charts for new world.

This site really has become awful.

lahnmir

GatsuZerk said:

So I guess Steven Weber thinks something like this is news worthy?

This looks like a Reddit post saying, hey guys look at the steam charts for new world.

This site really has become awful.

On its own this isn’t really newsworthy, I agree. However, I think this article is a reaction to the many, many, doom and gloom posts and threads here talking about how horrible everything about NW was, how clueless AGS was, and how everybody’s crystal ball was better then others’. I actually thought that phase was when this site became awful for a while. I find this much improved ro be honest. Much like NW really.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Tokken

Robokapp said:

Tokken said:

 Also, they need to add better items to the cash shop. 

why would you want better items in cash shop instead of in game?

so ppl will buy items as well to keep the game going. I haven't spent a dime in the cash shop cuz there isn't anything worthwhile to buy.  

maskedweasel

lahnmir said:

GatsuZerk said:

So I guess Steven Weber thinks something like this is news worthy?

This looks like a Reddit post saying, hey guys look at the steam charts for new world.

This site really has become awful.

On its own this isn’t really newsworthy, I agree. However, I think this article is a reaction to the many, many, doom and gloom posts and threads here talking about how horrible everything about NW was, how clueless AGS was, and how everybody’s crystal ball was better then others’. I actually thought that phase was when this site became awful for a while. I find this much improved ro be honest. Much like NW really.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Here's the thing I think is interesting. When they reported that new world tanked lik 90% or something, nobody batted an eye and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. As soon as they report that after a year the game is starting to get some traction back, and according to the post, triple the active players in the past 3 months, people try to call them out as bad reporters or whatever?

Can't have it both ways. I think if people want to see articles about population decline then they should equally have to deal with the cases where the population increases too. 

TBH I probably will come back to new world now that I see people are coming back. I left cause of bugs and my guild basically disbanded. If people are coming back, I would jump in for a fresh start server.