r/newworldgame Mar 02 '26

Discussion [AMA Announcement] I'm David McKenzie, former Lead World Designer on New World. I shipped Nighthaven and Brimstone Sands. Doing an AMA next Wednesday, March 11th at 2PM EST / 7PM GMT. Drop your questions here!

831 Upvotes

Hey Aeternum,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here (at least with this account). I'm David McKenzie, and I spent several years at Amazon Games as the Lead World Designer on New World. My biggest shipped credits are Nighthaven and Brimstone Sands, but I'm genuinely here for all of it.

I've been out of AGS for a while now and I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. There's a lot I can talk about, and honestly some stuff I still can't, but I'll be as open as I'm able to be.

I'll be back on Wednesday, March 11th, at 2PM EST / 7PM GMT to answer questions live.

In the meantime, post your questions in this thread and I'll use the week to think through the ones I want to tackle first when the AMA kicks off. Upvote the questions you most want answered so I can prioritize.

Fair warning on what I can and can't cover: I'm happy to dig into design philosophy, zone-building, lore decisions, what made it into the game vs. what got cut, the realities of live service development, and what it's actually like working on an MMO at that scale. I'll do my best to be straight with you on the hard questions too. What I won't do is break NDA, or throw anyone under the bus, or get into anything that's genuinely confidential.

See you next week!

— David McKenzie ( www.david-mckenzie.com )

Update: I'm blown away by the support and love from the playerbase! I'm working my way through the questions now, and I'll continue to answer questions throughout the rest of the evening.

Update: Continuing to answer questions as I get time. If you have a question and it doesn't have an existing answer, I will probably get around to it!

Update: I'm just gonna keep answering questions whenever I have time until I finally answer every single one. Cheers, and thank you so much to everyone for the support, kindness, and love. New World will forever be in my heart, and the players made it happen, made it real, and made it the honor of my life.


r/newworldgame Oct 30 '25

DEV-Response A Message from the NewWorldGame Mod Team

868 Upvotes

(edit: dev response flair is automatically added when a dev posts a comment below) The thead here is from the subreddit Mod team, who are all community members and do not and didn't work for Amazon.

The last couple of days it's been hard to put my thoughts together, and this has been a tough post to write.

By now, most of you have seen the news. Amazon Games has announced that new content development for New World is ending. Season 10 and the Nighthaven update will be the last major content release the game receives. While the servers are slated to remain online "through 2026," the active development of Aeternum is over.

This news comes as part of a much larger, heartbreaking wave of layoffs across Amazon's gaming division, with the Irvine studio that poured its soul into this world being hit particularly hard. It’s a gut punch, especially because it feels like it came out of nowhere. The community was buzzing again, player counts were up, and Season 10 felt like another strong step in the right direction. To have the plug pulled now, right at what felt like a new peak of potential and revitalization... is a special kind of cruel irony that I know many of you are feeling.

For me, this isn't just the loss of a game. This is the loss of a massive part of my life for the better part of a decade. It's the loss of a world I helped shape, a community I helped raise, and friendships I'll always cherish.

My Journey in Aeternum

My own story with this game is nearly as old as the game itself. I was there at the 2016 TwitchCon reveal when New World was just a bold idea alongside other ambitious projects. From that moment, I was hooked. I became one of the first members of the public to set foot in Aeternum as part of Wave 1 during Alpha 1 tests back in 2018, and have been a part of nearly every closed test since, even in concurrent new world servers during early and post-launch. All counted somewhere north of 10k hours. Over 8 years...

I was there for the wild days of the open-world PvP base-building sandbox. I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of that system firsthand and provided feedback alongside the rest of that small, initial group of testers. I've watched this game fundamentally transform, pivot, and evolve over the years, and I've been in the trenches testing it every step of the way. This game, its development, and its community haven't just been a hobby for me; they've been a constant, driving passion for over eight years. To see it end like this feels like losing a piece of myself.

Building Our Home: From a Few Thousand to 300,000+ Strong

In parallel to my time testing the game, I was here, helping build this community from the ground up. I didn't start as the lead here but have been for nearly 5 years As the lead moderator. I've had the incredible privilege of building this space from just a few thousand curious adventurers into a bustling hub of over 300,000 people. With more than 9 million views per month. and... in the last 12 months 66,288 Moderation actions... God help me...

Some of you may even remember our old name: r/new_world_mmo. As the game evolved and its launch in 2021 approached, we decided to transition to r/newworldgame. There was a lot to that choice, even temporary fracturing of the community, but that's long ago history. It was more than a name change; it was about making this the one central place for the whole community and shedding some serious problems, eventually combining subreddits in the form it takes today, more or less. Witnessing the following growth, seeing the connections people made, the guides they wrote, the accomplishments they had, the stories they shared. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. As far as volunteer, unpaid experiences go, it has not been easy, but I stayed because I love this game and wanted to build a space where people could discuss the game, the good and the bad, and share it with the rest of reddit. 

A Partnership Effectively Built

The relationship between this subreddit and the development team went far beyond simple bug reports. I personally knew over 30 developers, artists, and community managers who were passionate people who loved Aeternum as much as we did. This is as close to an inside perspective as it gets, which is why I often publicly defended Scot and Katy; they were in the trenches with us, reading our feedback and genuinely caring. Many people do not understand the long development cycles of expansions. For instance, content for Brimstone Sands was already in development at launch, and Nighthaven content had started before the Angry Earth expansion was released. This context shows the immense long-term planning required while simultaneously fixing immediate issues.

The Subreddit had/has an active relationship that led to a vital, unseen collaboration. The subreddit had a direct, private communication line to key AGS staff, which I called the "bat phone" used from launch until February 2022. When game-breaking exploits like gold dupes were found, we did not let them spread on the subreddit; we used the bat phone to tell the developers directly. This is why the mod team could confidently say the devs were aware of an issue while asking users not to share the exploit steps. We used this line to report mass server crashes and many other issues. This direct line was essential for relaying critical information during the chaos of launch queues when official channels were overloaded.

This tool was a necessary partnership born from the game's technical volatility and the developers' trust in us as a reliable alarm system. It was almost always a one-way street: we provided critical information, and in return, we got a better game and occasional subreddit art. Despite this closeness, the subreddit always maintained its independence. We never removed content unless it violated our own community-developed rules, which AGS had no input on. They respected our independence and never pushed the issue when we said no. This mutual respect made it one of the most effective community-partner developer relationships I have seen. The results of getting things fixed speak for themselves, where in one instance, I was the first to report a gold dupe issue that surfaced on Reddit, and resulted in a full market stop within 45 minutes.

That method changed in February 2022 with the formation of the "New World Experts Group," a fact I can now confirm exists (with permission from Amazon Legal), along with my voluntary membership. Scot also outed the existence of this group 3 years ago in an interview. This active group included expert players of all styles and developers, allowing them to discuss and test content in development. While I cannot share specific conversations, it allowed me, as someone who saw nearly every subreddit post and 10K hours of playtime, to provide direct feedback. The more that group was trusted, the better results we saw. It was a privilege to be part of this group and to gain the development context I mentioned earlier.

To Our Friends at Amazon Games

This part is for you, the developers, artists, Videographers, Sound Designers, Combat systems engineers, Server and backend Azoth Engine developers, designers, and community managers who are reading this.

Thank you,

Thank you for the countless hours, the passion, and the creativity you poured into Aeternum. Thank you for listening to us, for engaging with us, and for never giving up on the game, even when the feedback was harsh or the technical hurdles seemed insurmountable. We saw your effort. We felt your dedication.

Please know that the community's current anger and disappointment are not directed at you. We know this decision was not yours. It was a corporate one, made in a boardroom far removed from the world you so carefully crafted. You are as much victims of this as we are, and for that, we are truly sorry. You deserved to see this project continue to grow and flourish. The talent in your studio is off the charts, and we can't wait to see what you all create in the future. We wish you the absolute best.

The Future of This Subreddit

With the servers remaining online for a while, this community still has a home. But what it's for is going to change. The mod team is already talking about what to do with r/newworldgame long-term, and we want you all to be part of that conversation.

What should this space become?

  • A Living Archive: A place to preserve the incredible guides, lore discussions, databases, and memories we've all created. A monument to the game and its community.
  • A Community Hub: A place for players to organize final in-game events, "end of the world" parties, screenshot contests, and farewell tours of Aeternum.
  • A Diaspora Network: A place for players to connect, share what games they're moving on to, and for companies and friends to find new worlds to explore together.

These are just ideas. We are open to your suggestions. This has always been your community, and you should have a say in its legacy.

This is a sad day, but our journey isn't quite over. Let's make the time we have left in Aeternum count. Thank you all for being a part of this incredible adventure.

A Thank You to My Team.

Lastly, I want to thank the Reddit Moderator Team. We are community members like you. Both the Current and former team members for everything, honorable mention u/joshrice for years of service and tens of thousands of moderation actions. This isn't a paid job, and it's not an easy job. but someone has to do it. for that, I can't thank them enough for their help in building and shaping this community.

u/commanderaze

I'd love to hear more stories from everyone else about their time in New World as we continue down the path forward.


r/newworldgame 2d ago

Image Statue of Jupiter (a screenshot from Jan 8, 2023, 🥲)

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160 Upvotes

r/newworldgame 4d ago

Discussion Creating my own PvP game with action combat like New World: Week 2 of Poor Man's OPR

113 Upvotes

Last week posted about a fun project of mine - trying to create a PvP game with similar action combat and server authority like New World.

Game is called WarBrawl.

This week added bow weapon and changed sample map to look similar to the Windsward dueling area :)

My last week post got blocked, because I updated it several times with new information on progress.

So decided to create a subreddit for my game prototype and to share updates over there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/warbrawl/comments/1v03px8/what_the_warbrawl_game_is/

If you want to help with play testing or follow updates, you can join the subreddit.

Here is a screenshot for those who might have missed it, and wondering wtf I am talking about (for demo video check the warbrawl subreddit):

You can play test it in PC browser here: https://play.warbrawl.com/

Video demo for people who just want to see how combat (running around a NPC, peak content) feels at the moment:

https://reddit.com/link/1v04h87/video/rdvvuq5ht4eh1/player


r/newworldgame 3d ago

Discussion Guys hear me out

0 Upvotes

Mortal online 2, is the closes you get to new world, go check it out


r/newworldgame 5d ago

Video One Last Time - New World Aeternum - Nighthaven Spoiler

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50 Upvotes

I did the whole msq one last time for memories. this is Nighthaven, very clean with dialogue and chapters, 3 boss fights (spoilers). to finally say goodbye to my greatest game of my time. sad moment but also a relief- see you in the future NWA I will miss you.


r/newworldgame 5d ago

Question Solo Viability

2 Upvotes

I'm looking to use all 9 gear sets as I level for the different play styles. But for end game solo content (soul trials and elite chest runs) which of these "classes" are actually viable to use?

LIGHT ARMOR

Priest: Light Staff & Void Gauntlet

Mage: Fire Staff & Ice Gauntlet

Gunner: Musket & Blunder

MEDIUM ARMOR

Ranger: Bow & Daggers

Marauder: Spear & Greatsword

Fencer: Rapier & Hatchet

HEAVY ARMOR

Paladin: Sword/Shield & Flail/Shield

Warrior: Hammer & Axe

Cleric: Flail/Shield & Light Staff


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Discussion Hope

59 Upvotes

Hey
I am not the hardcore NewWorld player as some of u might be BUT I loved the game so much. It was my MMORPG of choice when not playing anything competitive.
Idk but from the bottom of my heart I hope its the biggest marketing gag ever done in videogame history. Don´t wanna believe they shutting it down. I still do not see any reason to really take the game offline.
I mean I came here to write these words while I know it will be gone soon.

Man its hurting. There is nothing compared to NW.
There are great Games out there but there is no NW.

I hope there might be a project in the future like Predecessor (Paragon) so we can keep playing...

Cheers everyone


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Image hold the tears

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658 Upvotes

From the very first day of the Beta to the final server shutdown... I watched a world I called home disappear forever.


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Discussion So what’s next?

14 Upvotes

I’m not going to sit here and act like I am a hardcore NW player. I played the beta on PC, on release gridded it until end game and just really didn’t touch it since. I didn’t really get into it until it dropped on consoles and ever since the announcement of the shut down, it killed all motivation for me to keep playing. My question is what’s the next MMORPG that y’all are playing? I’ve never played any other game of the genre.


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Question What’s the best alternative ( consoles )

7 Upvotes

Question mainly for consoles , but what is everyone going to play instead , any suggestion or any hidden gems ? I know consoles are so limited and it’s a shame servers are leaving us as I pre ordered this for full price


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Video Nothing Has Scratched This PvP Itch Since

46 Upvotes

Found this old video and I just can't bring myself to delete it. Man, I miss the PvP. I'm not claiming I was good or anything I just really miss those massive server fights. I haven't played anything that captures that feeling since.

RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-N3rJD5iaA


r/newworldgame 5d ago

Video Back when it all felt new.

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0 Upvotes

Watching this just makes me sad. For a while, New World was exactly what I wanted from an MMORPG. Nothing has given me that feeling since.


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Discussion World drops?

4 Upvotes

Since season 10/ nighthaven revamp. Are there still world drops to farm? Ill-gotten gains is gone. Leveling a healer and was dinking around to find Harold is gone.


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion I’ve tried all MMOs this community suggests as alternatives. NONE of them satisfy that New World gameplay.

232 Upvotes

I’ve most recently been spending time playing Guild Wars 2. It’s probably the closest thing, but imagine if New World was 15 years older and you scaled down everything.

Downgrade of the action gameplay. Graphics. Music. Narrative. Character models. Cosmetics. Quests. World design. Basically take everything in New World and downgrade it to like 10-15 years ago. That’s GW2.

The only thing it has and edge on is: it’s still actively supported by the developer.

And I’ve tried others. Where Winds Meet. RuneScape. Nothing is close.

The DISAPPOINTMENT is massive. It’s a hole that can’t really be filled.

Guild Wars 2 is like squinting at New World and pretending you’re playing it. It’s like drinking a LaCroix vs a soda. You get that hint, but there’s no oomph.

I keep playing GW2 and will try Chrono Odyssey when/if it ever comes out. All of these “upcoming” games have future release dates that we know get DELAYED VERY OFTEN. Q1 2027? That’s January-March. But we know they’d likely be looking at March. And let’s be honest. It going to get moved to Fall 2027 at least when it comes down to it.

There’s nothing that compares and I wish that we could AT LEAST cope with a game where servers would remain live for a few years more to come.


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Suggestion For those of you who misses NW PvP

16 Upvotes

The closest thing coming out is Mistfall Hunters at end of the month. Not an MMO but full action combat PvP with mechanics similar to NW.
Alittle janky and rough around the edges but with some polish it can be the best thing we get for a while - until GW3 or CO (if it’s even good)


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Question Can somebdy help me fix this graphics

0 Upvotes

on every game my textures are looking like this... can anyone help me fix this ? i have rtx5070


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion stepped on this today

6 Upvotes

r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion Which game are you playing nowadays?

36 Upvotes

After New World’s journey, what are you guys playing as your main game? I’m bored and feel like I have nothing to play.
New World was the first MMO I ever played, and I absolutely loved it. I just can’t seem to find another game that’s as fun, so I’m curious—what are you all playing these days?


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion Voidbent armor.

31 Upvotes

Been on vacation and playing. I farmed a full set of voidbent heavy. If you played the og launch. This was the meta pvp set. It was bugged as hell and basically made you super tanky. I was in a war guild and spent weeks farming for the mats! I’ll be wearing it on the last day. Wish first light was still around for the last day. We owned that everfall and windsward. Had so many open world PvP fights defending First light.


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Discussion Gear advancements?

0 Upvotes

Do you think gear is in a better place with this final reboot? I enjoyed beastbane and such. (Still can get legacy items with these.) I remember crafting a bow for bison, to farm hides. I love artifacts. But at launch I made all my $ crafting jewelry. Since it didn’t drop in game. Played a new character today. You don’t even need cut gems to craft?! 20 green rings all the same. My first crafted Lego rolled keen,vicious, and ancient bane. I got discounted dungeon key runs because it was bis for laz.


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Discussion New World is the first MMO in a long time that was able to get young players and the mainstream audience into an MMO

124 Upvotes

When a new MMO launches it’s usually the same jaded 30+ year olds that give the game a try. But with New World I saw something promising, new blood. New World was the first mmo in years that was able to get young players and the mainstream audience to give it a try, when it hit 1 million peak players on launch there was all types of people trying it out, it wasn’t just the same demographics we always see.

If AGS did things the right way we could have seen the MMO genre bring in and retain an entire new generation of players for the first time in forever. I think that was one of the biggest signs of promise with new world, the potential it had in that area. It had engaging action combat that more people found fun and good graphics so its potential audience was much wider. It sucks the game is being shut down but at least New World has shown us that it’s possible for the genre to be revived and for an MMO to be a big hit with all demographics, next time the gameplan just needs to be better to properly take advantage of the momentum.


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Video Juxy's Life in New World Aeternum

24 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I know that New World's days are numbered and that most of you no longer play. Personally, I haven't been able to move on.

If you still play US East or used to play US West, you may have been on the wrong end of my Chaos BB. If you don't know, I've spent the last year making music videos (a lot of them) which are low on kills but high on blasts (if that is your kind of thing).

Anyways, I just finished my second New World short film so I wanted to share them both with the community.

Part 1: A Moment Apart

Part 2: Right Where It Belongs

They are kind of my way of processing what's happened with the game. Enjoy!

And to make the most of my first post, I'd like to create a collection of other New World music videos so please share your favorites in the comments.

There is one in particular that I'm hoping someone remembers and can share with me, a PvP montage featuring a hatchet player using the old Defy Death ability. I haven't been able to find it and really want to see it again.


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Transmog Transmog FanArt

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19 Upvotes

Just a transmog FanArt that I made some time ago


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Question Do wars or OPR matches still happen?

5 Upvotes

I stopped playing after the announcement of servers closing but I’ve been craving New World PvP recently. Is there anything left for a returning player?