New World, Amazon Games’ first MMO, will release in May 2020

Amazon Games’ first MMO, New World, will launch in May 2020.

Revealed at last night’s The Game Awards, the launch date was accompanied by a cinematic trailer that “introduced players to Aeternum, the Eternal Isle, a vast and diverse land of danger and opportunity”.

“We want our players to feel the depth – and the danger – of New World from the moment they step onto the shores of Aeternum in May 2020,” said Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games. “Our team has been working tirelessly to create a deep, immersive world that delivers challenges and surprises at every turn, and we’re so excited to reveal a bit more of it today.”

Amazon says it is creating games “that aim to be as fun to watch as they are to play”. Building within the sandbox of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Lumberyard, Twitch, and more, Amazon Games’ ambition is “to create bold new gaming experiences that foster community inside and outside of the games themselves”. Current Amazon Games projects in addition to New World include multiplayer shooter Crucible and the newly announced The Lord of the Rings MMO.

New World is being developed by Amazon Games’ development studio in Orange County, California, and will release on PC via Steam.

MCV/Develop recently reported that Amazon is reportedly working on its own game streaming service that may launch in time for Christmas 2020. It’s believed the retail giant has plans to announce the service next year and according to “two people familiar with the company’s plans”, it has already commenced hiring for the project, which is being described as a “new initiative” within its Amazon Web Services division. 

“We believe the evolution that began with arcade communities a quarter at a time, growing to the live streams and esports of today, will continue to a future where everyone is a gamer and every gamer can create, compete, collaborate and connect with others at massive scales,” one Amazon job reportedly posted this month said, with at least one other job posting explaining the company wants to “drive innovative new use cases like machine vision and game streaming”.

“The odds of [Amazon] letting the Scarlett and PS5 launch without Amazon being there is zero,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told the press at the time.