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Expansions for long-standing MMORPGs is a tricky scenario in most cases. Developers need to ensure an expansion adds a plethora of compelling new content in a timely fashion, but they must do so while interest in the game is still high. Although New World‘s first expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth, succeeds in the former, it’s blundered the latter. With a dwindling player count after two years since New World’s initial release, an expansion like Rise of the Angry Earth feels like too little, too late. This expansion is rich in content by giving players many widely requested features, such as mounts and a new weapon. Although the expansion overall is a solid new chapter for New World, Rise of the Angry Earth took way too long to release.
New World Brought A New Twist To MMORPGs
At launch, New World’s population surged to enormous numbers. It was one of the most anticipated games of 2021, boasting a whopping 900,000 concurrent players at one point. These numbers were more than the servers could even handle. By comparison, Lost Ark, another popular MMORPG at the time, had only 500,000 on its initial launch. From the usual level-grinding and RPG crafting to wide-scale PvP wars between rival factions, New World lacked many features it desperately needed to retain its playerbase.
While this expansion will add these sought-after features and improve the overall experience, Amazon Games has missed its opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. SteamChart numbers reveal just 20,000 concurrent players on most days. That’s a massive downturn, and largely as a result of many simply becoming bored of what was on offer. Are players likely to return now, even despite the potential quality of Angry Earth? It seems unlikely.
Other MMOs Follow A Similar Release Pattern
In fairness, such a wait for a major expansion isn’t unheard of as far as the MMORPG scene goes. For example, after WoW’s initial release on November 23, 2004, Burning Crusade took over two years to come out on January 16, 2007. Additionally, the modern version of FF14 was released on February 18, 2014, while the first expansion was released 2 years later. Both games are two of the most popular MMORPGs of all time but would continue to have an average of a two-year waiting period in between expansions. It seems that the developers of New World: Rise of the Angry Earth were trying to emulate this formula despite the dwindling player count. What they didn’t factor in was just how fast the playerbase would plummet. It seems to me that where Warcraft and Final Fantasy had a legacy fandom keeping afloat, New World just didn’t command the same loyal type of community.
New World’s initial popularity was due to an excellent hype-building campaign and the game’s fresh take on the MMORPG genre. However, the realm of modern gaming makes it difficult for MMOs to survive. With new players following games based on trends, gamers are more likely than ever to hop from New World to the next big release.
Additionally, it doesn’t help that New World lacks what it takes to retain player interest due to its weak end-game content. This led even the most stalwart MMO fans to leave New World behind after they ran out of things to do. Many of these players returned to their usual MMOs and left New World’s unique style behind. Due to this, New World could neither captivate the general public nor hardcore MMO players past release. Although this is only speculative, it would explain how New World lost so many players before the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion.
While it’s sad to see the MMORPG decline, there is a chance that the new expansion revitalizes New World. Between its content updates and news coverage, New World: Rise of the Angry Earth may restore its popularity. Plus, as is the case with most MMOs, we’ll probably see a spike in New World’s player count after this. Although it won’t reach the heights as its release, it’ll be nice to see the MMO get a second wind. However, the Rise of the Angry Earth sadly doesn’t seem like it’ll save New World from decline. Ultimately, Amazon Games missed its window to capitalize on the game’s initial success.
