New World: Aeternum Interview – A Fresh Beginning

When New World launched back in 2021, the MMORPG became an industry-wide sensation, attracting players in massive numbers and threatening to become that next big MMORPG that fans of the genre are always on the lookout for. Three years on, things haven’t quite panned out that way, but though New World hasn’t put itself on the same level as a World of Warcraft or a Final Fantasy 14, it is successful enough in its own right. Now, Amazon Games’ title has reintroduced itself to the world as a solo-friendly action RPG with a host of new content to dive into as well, in the form of New World: Aeternum. To learn more about it and everything that’s changed, we recently had the chance to ask its developers some of our questions about the game. Below, you can read our interview with senior producer Andrew Webster.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"The majority of the challenges came from ensuring New World: Aeternum performed well and looked great no matter what platform players chose, and maintaining the high bar set for the visual fidelity."

How much of a challenge was it scaling the game down to have it work on consoles?

The majority of the challenges came from ensuring New World: Aeternum performed well and looked great no matter what platform players chose, and maintaining the high bar set for the visual fidelity. Additionally getting the controller feel took a lot of work not just for combat and making this feel natural for players but also how they would navigate the complex system of menus.

How have you balanced especially the PvP with the concessions made to cross-platform play?

We definitely wanted controller to be competitive with keyboard / mouse in PvP. We added a number of passive assist features for controller, including reticle and magnetism and homing. We changed our movement system for controller to grant full 360 degree movement, and we added an active target lock. Thanks to player feedback in our beta tests, we think we have found a good balance for the target lock, but we are continuing to keep an eye on it as more players enjoy the game.

Did the development team ever consider changes to the mechanics or structure to accommodate console players?

A lot of work went into navigation of the UI (simplification of interactions) and support for controller (combat to menu navigation). On the controller we made camera adjustments to better follow the camera around target lock. We added a virtual cursor & keyboard (with variable friction and magnetism settings), aim assist and settings, target lock, haptics, etc. — and so on. We also added plenty of gamepad shortcuts in the UI to make the VC easier to use (e.g. X as a default to action/proceed). Additionally we also made sure consoles still support keyboard and mouse, in case that’s how players would prefer to play.

"Over the past three years we’ve listened to players and made hundreds of improvements and additions to New World—from completely revamping the story and early levels of the game, to adding new end-game expeditions and mutations, new weapons, and many quality of life updates and rebalances. And now, with New World: Aeternum, we’re adding even more."

Aeternum marks a sort of a fresh launch for New World. What are the new functions and features you would advertise to lapsed players as the most significant? Obviously, they can expect cross-platform play and better controller support as part of this update, but what else?

Over the past three years we’ve listened to players and made hundreds of improvements and additions to New World—from completely revamping the story and early levels of the game, to adding new end-game expeditions and mutations, new weapons, and many quality of life updates and rebalances. And now, with New World: Aeternum, we’re adding even more—including the first ever large-scale PvP zone, new 10-player raid, gear-score increase to 725 and end-game solo trial challenges. If it’s been a while since they’ve played, now is a great time to come back and find a really fresh and exciting experience waiting for you.

In the near future, what else can new World players expect to be coming to the game? What do your post-launch plans look like once Aeternum is out?

New World: Aeternum has a bright future with more seasons, more content updates, and in-game events planned for the future. We will have more news on this coming soon.

Do you see a chance, hypothetically speaking, of this game launching on the Nintendo Switch successor?

Right now we’re focused on providing a great experience for players on our current platforms.