Amazon's 'New World' delayed to August due to coronavirus lockdown

What you need to know

• Amazon Game Studios' upcoming MMO, New World, has been delayed from May to August.
• The game director cited issues due to the company transitioning to remote work.
• The Closed Beta has also been delayed to July, but interested players can still sign up here.

A lot of industries have had to transition to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Amazon Games was no exception. Unfortunately, that means the studio's upccoming outing, New World, was affected.

The studio announced Wednesday that the open world MMO PC game has been pushed back from May to August 25, 2020. The Closed Beta has also been pushed back 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," the update read. "We've chosen to delay the game's release in order to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.

In a video posted to YouTube, game director Scot Lane clarified further that the team has been dealing with some adjustment challenges due to remote work.

"We're still working hard and are making progress, but because game development is so collaborative and highly technical, the remote work situation has exposed some probelms we're still trying to work through," he said.

He did add that the company is going to keep the Alpha going for players.

There have been multiple delays across the industry due to the spread of COVID-19. Recently, Sony announced that Iron Man VR and The Last of Us Part II were delayed "indefinitely" due to challenges presented by the pandemic. We should expect other delays to occur, especially with many teams across the games industry transitioning to work-from-home environments.

New World is a PvP-style MMO set on the fictional magical island of Aeternum in the 17th century. Players will have to battle an evil force called the Corruption and all the beings it, well, corrupts. You can pre-order the game below and still sign up for the Closed Beta.