Amazon Games Orange County, the developer behind Amazon previously blocked New World character creation on overcrowded servers, leading some players to start playing on servers in less populated regions as a temporary measure. The developer had previously stated that region transfer would be added to the game sometime in the future.
While New World has seen great success since it left beta, the game also faced significant backlash since it launched. The wait time to get into the servers stretched out longer and longer in the days following its release, forcing fans to wait hours to start playing the game. Players who wanted to play with their friends were forced to make characters in different servers and, when more space became available, potentially them later. New World beat out long-established titles for highest player count in its opening weekend, but that success has been the source of many of the game's biggest issues.
An FAQ by Amazon on the New World forum (via Eurogamer) announced that region switching will not be possible in New World, fueling further backlash about the game. The company stated that "Transfers are only available within your region, each region is a separate database and it is not possible to re-assign as character to a different region." It went on to confirm that "Unfortunately, the original information provided was incorrect" - a reference to an earlier tweet stating region switching would come to New World at a later date. The earlier (now incorrect) tweet can be seen below.
Fans of the game expressed their frustrations online. One The grind required for New World was another common complaint against the game, and few players want to restart their progress in order to move to a different region. The New World FAQ did confirm that transfers between servers in the same region will be possible, but players will require a transfer token to do so. Currently only one transfer token is available per New World , but Amazon stated tokens will be available in the game's store when the server populations stabilize.
New World still boasts a huge player count, but issues with the game continue to build up. In-game problems like New World bots hogging the best fishing spots will need solutions in the future, but the trouble with the servers is the most immediate difficulty worth addressing. To last as a competitor in the MMO space, New World needs to further incentivize players to play the game. Mixed messaging that forces character abandonment after dozens of hours of investment may have the opposite effect.
New World is currently available on PC.
Source: New World Forums, Eurogamer
