Journalists Brutally Tear Apart New World: Aeternum

The journalists over at Massively OP did a serious number on the New World: Aeternum announcement. Not only did they very openly criticize many of the aspects that the player base have also been complaining about, but they also warned them ahead of time that the announcement wouldn't be well-received.
Sources:
Massively Overthinking: The New World Aeternum debacle: massivelyop.com/2024/06/14/ma...
Hands-On New World: Aeternum - SGF Play Days 2024 | 3GB: • Hands-On New World: Ae...
❤️PATREON: / dukesloth
00:00 - They were warned
00:34 - What is Massively Overthinking?
00:59 - Andrew's warning
03:50 - New World's "Rebrand"
04:40 - Console appeal
06:33 - Tone-deaf messaging & marketing
07:21 - It SHOULD be a top 5/10 MMO
07:37 - Sunset date?
#NewWorld #aeternum #newworldaeternum
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MORE SLOTH:
PATREON: / dukesloth
TWITCH: / dukesloth
DISCORD (New World): / discord
TWITTER: / dukeslothtv
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[@drfalken6174]

All of their Devs should be fired. They learned nothing from their release date. And never listened to their player base since that time. It had potential but their current leadership killed it long ago.

[@Eas_the_Planeswalker]

So shouldn't the leadership change then instead of the devs? 🙂

[@trutoyrslf]

Scott and his Boss/Management shouldbe fired... this screams corporate BS in my eyes. To the dev team as a whole being fired... bugs and direction, I put squarely on Scott, but in the end, these devs have put together what everyone agrees should be a top MMO and clearly imo the best non-tab target MMO ever created. Calling it for the whole dev team to be fired is also BS.

[@SerenityNW]

its all over. they will get a tiny bit of cash from console and stay sustained, maybe drop one big update(realize theres no gains) and then ignore new world while focussing on LOTR, and then sometime during LOTR new world will be shut down.

[@inickdavies]

Yeah I don't think it's the devs at all. They should consider whoever is making this calls is plain wrong. The game is epic, just let down by poor management which is a MASSIVE shame

[@pothofoxolo-treepaintneint3204]

yes fired them all , i had biggest server palyer number disgussion on discord and i left from all, game , discord any other shit they have about new world.

[@leonkennedy9739]

Here is my problem, if the devs were honest and said there was no content instead of wait for the big announcement players would have received it better. The players aren't upset about improvements, or consol, or the pvp island or the raid or massive reworking of the major systems. They are angry about being lied to.

[@LordGank1]

A completely new dev team would get us excited

[@jStorm75307]

100% - Non of them had MMO experience and it shows. Wrong move after wrong move... who here would still have their jobs if they were this clueless? (Probably about 1/2 realistically) lol

[@REALBabyJohns]

@@jStorm75307 at this point i think its their supervisor's decision making. I dont think they gather and say lets ruin this game more than it can be now. I think AGS only cares about money and its their motto so here we are.

[@ImKaboose]

@@REALBabyJohns Its devs and supervisors. Devs writing garbage code that creates 3 bugs for every 1 bug they attempt to fix, and game leads that are guessing what gamers like instead of having leads that play games.

[@REALBabyJohns]

@@ImKaboose i heard that they dont even write their own code KEKW.

[@mgw5377]

@@jStorm75307 Iv'e been saying this for so long. Look at Scotts imdb page dude did manhunt and a few other games how tf is he in a lead dev position ?

[@CascadenTV]

AGS have dropped the ball not only VERY HARD this time but also for like the 10th time. This is not just negatively affecting console players getting into the game now that PC players are voicing highly negative sentiment but the LOTR MMO is likely going to see some of that same affect. AGS are just trash at communication and marketing.

[@ryuno2097]

Yeah. I have no idea why some people think the main AGS team will do the LOTR MMO justice if they can't develop New World properly. 😂

[@MrBalrogos]

They have at least 1 million player base people who buy game in the past, why not make something to bring them back to the game??????

[@voyvoda2292]

they know they theyve done way too much harm to most of the players, the only people really around now have multiple thousands of hours in the game, the game is enjoyable but once you really look at it you see all kinda of things that are just unpolished since they were released, the game genuinely feels like its still in beta.

[@VeNoMz_]

That would require the game to be good enough for them to try it again, and a massive marketing campaign.

[@voyvoda2292]

@@VeNoMz_ honestly i dont think they can even pull a FF14 at this point, theyve just underperformed in almost every aspect, even since beta

[@MrBalrogos]

@@VeNoMz_ That i was talking about invest in PC Playerr which have already game bought, add content fix stuff. I would say the NW should be driven by loot and should have at least item diversity like in Diablo, cause its too easy to get good gear.

[@mgw5377]

They would have to completely redo the game like final fantasy to build hype

[@tennypie]

I'm actually heartbroken with everything that's happening to NW, I have so many good memories with this game and it's just sad that AGS did this.

[@killpo_1]

Between removing the Forums, basically banning anyone with a dissenting opinion off discord, and now this absolute top tier failure of marketing one has to wonder what the hell AGS was thinking, because it doesn't seem rational to anyone. But maybe that's the point, maybe they've grown spiteful of their current audience but can't say it.

[@BabyJohnsss]

Think there is some bullsh1t going on in ags, im not an expert but if i was ceo of ags i would fire them after the results of DLC and lack of ideas and content for game. Like i think there is huge degenaration/corruption in company atm.

[@CeresOutpost]

I believe this is true. It seems to me that they feel like the PC mmorpg fanbase "abandoned" the game, so they are moving on without us. That's the impression I've had since this whole thing started. Even the short, cherry-picked Q&A video for PC players was phoned in, and all three of them looked like they wish they were anywhere else but making that video. This game is going to continue to remove or dumb down the MMORPG features until it's a standard, puddle-deep ARPG. The cash shop will be 100% pay to win. They aren't going back in the direction of a full MMORPG again. They can't handle the scale of it.

[@Tasos_GK]

Things are pretty simple: They are having pressure from higher levels of the corporate chain to bring in revenue. That's why AGS changed direction, to new profitable audience (Console gamers), and this would explain why Rise of the Angry Earth expansion felt so rushed and was a paid dlc. I suspect that expanding to consoles would be an inevitable step forward, but the time it occured shows that they are kinda on fire.

[@CeresOutpost]

@@Tasos_GK Scaling this down to make it an ARPG also means simplifying systems. Part of the goal seems to be dumbing the game down to a point where this team has a chance of managing it. Mark my words. Existing systems will continue to be dumbed down in this game.

[@Artanthos]

I think it is entirely possible the devs can't stand their current community. They certainly have been acting like it.

[@davidudavid9430]

Short Roadmap: October Release on console, try to fix all the bugs 1 year than Release for mobile

[@d3ik3n182]

LOL

[@Troy-gk8pr]

Note: Still no new content for pc players

[@tedmundnw9310]

Fully justified. How are heads not rolling yet at AGS from this disastrous announcement?

[@BubbaSvensson]

I heard of one getting fired at least so far, don't remember who it was though.

[@chunkycat5296]

They gave Scot Lane a brand new Ferrari and he drove it into a tree.

[@OccamsEraserhead]

Not just that. They kept giving him more Ferraris and he kept finding more trees.

[@brassbat]

Im stoked to play on ps5. Ive iwned the game on pc since launch...ive played about 1200hrs, my pc is crap and the game lagged so bad for me, i had to stop. Legit cant wait to get back into it on ps5.

[@indo-crypto3903]

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩Any games in the future that have any of these people on board should be an immediate RED FLAG.🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

[@BRADLIKESPVP]

They had 3 years to get the game back on track and players gave them multiple chances to redeem themselves, but somehow they‘ve done nothing but disappoint with both their delivery and communication every single time. And at some point you just don‘t deserve any second chances anymore. These devs will never change and New World will never be the game we all wanted it to be. The sooner you accept that the sooner you can move on to other games that actually have a future.

[@dervykins]

we gave them years of feedback via betas and the forums that they deleted (after saying they wouldnt) and they didnt listen to us either. Not even after they had nearly a billion dollars of revenue that came from our hands (60 usd x 16+ million copies sold). I'm not shocked they didn't care about criticism or these warnings when we've been paying their salaries this whole time and they didn't listen to us either. You cant even help AGS help themselves at this point.

[@newbishere1351]

The AGS team got feedback and didn’t listen to it??? What????? Noooo way!!

[@r3load403]

Can we start a fundraiser to buy the game from the devs and develope it ourselves?

[@weirdodude1173]

I love the core of game, but I think the dev leadership is clueless and borders on incompetent a lot of the time. It's tragic. This game definitely could be a top 10, but with bad decisions it's just more of an exercise in futility. We've seen the devs drive the population into the ground more than once. At least console players can get a few good weeks of fun in the game before it happens again. Thumbs up for great videos.

[@jwednesdaym]

I read this article last week and it convinced me that AGS is concerned only about money and not making a good game. Companies like this do not function without a cost benefit analysis and a reasonable ROI. These decisions are made by people who prioritized money over quality. There may be devs who actually love the game abs want to do good work, but I think it's been clear that all decisions have only led to increasing profit. This realization combined with realizing none of the devs have ever mentioned any other mmos they've played, just has me convinced NW is a cash grab and will become more underhanded in their Monetization.

[@sakis2011]

great vid as usual

[@deadhurt816]

Omg I forgot I was subscribed to you. Used to watch your smite videos all the time.

[@BLNMotoCity]

Imagine you were a business (wo-)man waking up early in the morning, going to work, participating in weekly meetings where sales numbers and charts are being displayed. And you watch the numbers decline on a steady, weekly basis and exactly in THAT moment youre not thinking "Hey...something must be going wrong. Should be cancel the project in general or work on a way to fix this?" No...in fact youre thinking "fxck the community. We'll just do whatever the f we think is right and whoever is in our way can suck it" Imagine what they could do if they honestly listened to the community. Its heartbreaking not wanting to play the game anymore because what once started as a PvP-focused game is a weird shxtshow now. RIP New World

[@diegofernandes9324]

And all of this happened because of a simple lack of communication.

[@CeresOutpost]

It's not that simple. This team can't handle New World as an MMORPG so it will be dumbed down to an ARPG over time so they can manage it and potentially keep making some money.

[@Ishrol]

It's almost like Amazon thinks gamers don't play on multiple platforms lol

[@samagalski87]

they did try to sell it as brand new game at the summer expo, game that is 3 years old!!!!!

[@CelticStone]

Liars, thieves & time wasters....... Well played devs..well played

[@zzzJOEB]

The game won't ever die the people.still playing will never quit. That's all they have in their life. (The pvp players) who have 8 alts and own all the Terri's with those alts

[@po-prostapoziomica5559]

Im just pissed over now what i can call, waste of 2k hours into game that became trash with developers sharing 2 braincells with PR

[@craybest]

how is it a waste if you enjoyed 2k hours?

[@Sinvx]

Honestly making base game free to play, probably would have done wonders for the game. Would of brought a lot of people to the game, cause free, and even if 5-10% buy the expansion would probably be huge to their current sales.

[@fatjay9402]

AGS doesnt care about us few PC gamers .. thats not even a joke ... bascily hate us.. and hope " conssle " player will be better

[@OccamsEraserhead]

They're so fragile - console players are gonna rip them to shreds. PC gamers are models of calm, patient loyalty in comparison.

[@darthmortarion5817]

I stopped playing shortly after angry earth and being able to smash the extra lvls out in a couple of hours

[@TheGingerjames123]

Its been kind of lost in the chaos but i heard they are bringing back pve stagger which seems like it would make certain areas almost impossible solo

[@DukeSloth]

It's PvE stagger of you staggering the mobs, not the other way around as far as I understand it (and from what it looks like in new gameplay). It'll make a lot of PvE easier, which imo isn't needed.

[@darksyde300]

It's really sad 😪😪 NW had so much potential and has so much potential bit they keep shooting themselves in the foot ... Unbelievable Smh 😢

[@jacobgill26]

I feel bad for all the New World content creators. I guess they'll find a new game to cover...

[@thenightingale7405]

Game journos are not trustworthy. I need some other folks to get access.

[@user-if4ti4et9e]

stopped playing 5 months

[@leana339]

Those people also forget that for example FF14 is a huge Franchise that was always Console focused and due to the popularity of Consoles in japan which is also the main market for playstation and the experience in regard to controls etc. of course it's massive on it. And aside from ESO i actually don't know anyone playing that on console and BDO the same lul.

[@planetg2125]

The devs work against the current pc player base instead of with

[@oDALEo-]

Is noone seeing the god awful camera movement @2:26 when locking on with the musket??? The camera jitters ever so slightly as if it literally fixes to a singular point on the ghoul and moves with it...? Tell me im not seeing things Slow it to .25 and youll see what i mean. I feel thatll be so offputting

[@rowanb4395]

Very considerate But yno

[@phenixdwn]

7:46 - naaaaah get that ugly ass screen blocking mana bar outta here. The new UI looks awful wtf.

[@TylerDull]

This is like the 5th video in a row like this….

[@AbianMayerhofer]

I avoid AGS games in the future. It is the only way paying them the same "respect" they do to us players. NWA will suffer the same fate. Fail company.

[@aortenzio]

Yup same no more ags games for me including LOTR

[@FreshJ1v3]

Thanks for your thoughts Duke. I feel burned by ags in many ways. It feels bad in game and every conversation I have about NW.

[@d3ik3n182]

Good luck to the console players who get this game. Devs prove they dont listen, prove they will literally troll you and sell out with out giving you promised content

[@xleandrzz]

And now they announced Throne and Liberty in September 17th. :/

[@jamesdenny1131]

Someone at AGS with "More title than sense" describes exactly why AGS will continue to make the same stupid mistakes over and over. They are obviously focused on making as much money as possible, NOT top quality games. They are basically NCsoft: Western Edition. Do yourself a favor, write them off your list and never purchase a game they are making or publishing, ever again.

[@pothofoxolo-treepaintneint3204]

Ags is a company that never listed current players ever. they chose wrong ways as always and make it game trash and boring. I tried to communicate with them also all other content creators did but they avoid to fix something.when ever they released expansion that was a appurtinity but they failed again.

[@sulrana1812]

I don't really see this as a terrible decision overall. More players will give AGS breathing room, the issue is what they do after they get those new players. Honestly the main problems with New World are content and gameplay loop based. What it needs is more ways to engage and connect high and low level players. It needs PvE elements to faction wars so people who can't get into the wars can help their faction. It needs some sort of "refer-a-friend" or mentoring system to help ease new players into servers. Why are we complaining about AGS adding console support, are we mad that we won't have dead servers anymore? Is this some plot by reddit to monopolize hemp harvesting?

[@Mactrizel]

Thing look bad for lord of the rings if they keep pulling this crap

[@iansoliz1992]

I think I said a year ago that the current dev team needed to be replaced with people who had more experience. Their roadmap should just start a clean slate. When they do release something it’s filled with bugs. This game has turned into an absolute shit show. I cannot believe I wasted 3000 hours playing it. Too many broken promises!

[@iCore7Gaming]

I've just gone to destiny 2 lol

[@ezequieltellez9082]

When a MMO that is loosing population drop a PTW DLC like new world, they know theyr pushing out lots of players that cant buy it, you maybe dont care (because they are poor, like they been called in the inchat-game) BUT, for a MMO to exist it needs MASSIVE Multiplayer Online gamers, in other words, you cant push ppl away of the game. But now theyr calling it a Action RPG (Not a MMO anymore, so... problem solved). Also with the new PTW DLC they give up the "RNG gods of the loot", because rewards are now link to your level (no DLC = 0% chance of end tier reward), farmers also cant farm end tier any more(unless they have the PTW DLC), and finally... iven if you buy the PTW DLC, how do you know they are not going to do it again? some other PTW DLC to go from lvl 65 to 70?. They are just milking the NewWorld population and now looking for console gamers. RIP New World... and it was so beautiful game. (2k hours playing it so i know)

[@blackshadown]

I immediately stop playing the game as soon that paid expansion came. No regrets, just sit back and watch the game sink

[@ryuno2097]

If it was a DEI company telling their game isn't "diverse and inclusive" enough they'd listen. But since the games journalist telling them the pc players won't like this , of course they wont listen and care. It's gamers at the end if the day, we're nobody to them. Out with the old and in with the new. We're expendable. 😂

[@nordee]

TLDR; 💀 DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! 💀 This goes out to all possible new console players, do NOT buy this game. The game studio behind it (Amazon Game Studios - AGS) has been lying to us, the PC players for months and months now. They stopped developing the game, they are not fixing bugs, they just want you console players to invest your money in this trainwreck of a "game". AGS tries to bait you into a rebranded game "New World" -> "Aeternum" because the reviews for New World and so Aeternum were devastating. Read the Steam reviews, read the press reviews and come to your own conclusion if you dont trust us. Us PC players who have been with New World for so many months and years, we stuck to this "game company" for so long and yet they kept lying to us. This is why everyone is furious. AGS is nothing but a lying, money hungry company. They delivered nothing, no roadmap, no content, nothing, for 9 months! 💀 DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! 💀 I've uninstalled this game 3 weeks ago. After 2400 hours. I just couldnt take any more lies by this company.

[@adrianor31]

I remember one of the Devs saying New World is "Free to Play" and then he retracted. Before the end of New World they are gonna try to save "the game and their jobs" making the game F2P.

[@spikenla]

RIP NW

[@ericliberty6142]

Yeah I’m done with this with game. I hopping for the game to fail. I advocated for this game for years and I tried to give other people reasons to try it. I can’t anymore. And now I’m ready for this shit show to end and admit that I was wrong. I hope they lose LOTR license and some indie studio picks it up

[@misterwub1438]

Man these devs just dont get it. I have 4k hours logged and stopped playing around last Fall. I want to come back and play again, but the dumb shit I hear they do from your very informative videos just makes me have no hope for the game. They're literally banking on the console release to save their jobs at AGS.... and we all can see it

[@gnomedigest]

This was always a learner project for the dev team that would eventually make the LotR MMO they actually care about. It explains why as time went on they increasingly ignored what their playerbase wanted and more on adding all the different parts of the MMO they would want to make in the future. It explains why so many resources are put toward a console release of a game on life support. The fact that New World made them money was an added bonus and never seemed to be the point. Hopefully they learned a lot as they slowly let New World atrophy into a more bare bones theme park mmo.

[@murkYuri]

But you guys keep playing and dumping money into the game so they don’t care and nothing is going to change.

[@At9poison]

New World is over. Wait a year to be told to wait for console 😂 yea ok bud. Only good news about NW is how much storage space you free up once its uninstalled.

[@pr0genitus]

massivelyOP is a perfect example of why we need independent games journalism. they've been around long enough in the industry to know that when MMOs pivot like new world is right now, its never a good sign and always like watching someone step on a rake. i've never been a complete doomer about NW before but this game is such a hard sell for $60 on console that i can't see it going well enough to warrant a ton of dev time... i can't conceive of the target market that makes this a huge console success. but NW has somehow weathered every storm, so we'll see.

[@jonathanbrinks7445]

Its sad to say this but i hope the console launch fails badly.We gave them so many chances and yet they still kept treating us like shit.

[@thedoggbeast6942]

You shouldve stayed on smite...

[@XxUchiDeshixX]

Brutal LOL

[@hoxyheart5479]

We miss his smite content 😢

[@darknubent]

Smite isn't doing much better lmao

[@BabyJohnsss]

Who ?

[@MrBalrogos]

We watch him for NWw, if he do video about somethiong else again ppl just unsub like they did before.

[@maaaanreally]

first comment

[@86ericg]

People over react about evrything always stupid drama

[@xBreakfastt]

If you're not happy with the game, then move on. The beating of a dead horse is not a good look.

[@Pokey-xp9gn]

Yeah and that horse is truly just that DEAD

[@spadesofhearts7714]

Not that simple when it's a game you've invested countless of hrs into, and have a whole YT channel based around it. Current players are right to be upset. Devs are awful at their jobs and ruining a good game.

[@xBreakfastt]

@spadesofhearts7714 if you're finding it difficult to quit playing, even when you are not getting any enjoyment out of it, that's a sign of addiction. There are resources out there for you.

[@garyn1780]

@@xBreakfastt an you are obviously addicted at spending time and commenting stuff here you have no interest in. what about you follow your own advice.

[@spadesofhearts7714]

@bryce4304 I'm pretty sure you can care about something without it being an addiction.... What's going on man, are you alright?

[@raider_of_peace]

If u.played this game for more than 1k hours then nothing to complain about

[@ACBGaming]

That's not the point about time put in. If you were promised for more content - that's the whole point of continuing to pay for seasons and log in daily. Don't be stupid.

[@dervykins]

they sold a season pass this spring while providing no seasonal content at all. thats something to complain about regardless of hours played.

[@garyn1780]

if you havent played the game much there is nothing relevant for you to say about the game.

[@OccamsEraserhead]

Shut up Scot

[@Frank_Nos]

Lmao bruh this game is dead its never getting the real mmo treatment

[@zanexander]

The game needs FFXIV treatment, baffling that these people still have jobs after 3 years of constant fails and screw-ups.