Amazon announced today the delay of New World, its MMO game for PC. It was scheduled to launch on May 25th via Steam, but Game Director Scot Lane posted a brief update citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the main cause for this postponement.

　　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.

　　We know you are eagerly anticipating the launch of New World, and we’re excited to share it with you. However, the health and safety of our team is our first priority. 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.

　　We would like to thank our Alpha players for helping us make a better game. The Alpha will remain open as we continue to test and tune our player experience. Between now and our launch on August 25, we will continue to share details on features and content going into the game. Please enjoy this new article on Invasion and keep your eye on our social media channels for more updates. We hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. We’ll be in touch soon.

　　A recent report published on the New York Times suggested both New World and Crucible, a multiplayer shooter also in development at Amazon Game Studios, were scheduled to launch in May. We'll see if Crucible indeed comes out next month.

　　As to New World, you can look back at our preview from last year's press event, though admittedly the game has changed quite a bit since.