New World - can anyone confirm or deny that the NDA has been lifted?

I've seen blog posts that it has been lifted for closed beta which has started but I can't tell if it really has been when I go to their site. I was in the alpha so to be fair my information is dated but I do have an opinion to share. The short version without breaking any NDA is my advice is "don't buy it".

 

Thanks for the advice Zhaanish. I was interested in it, but have seen some video reviews on you tube and it isn't looking promising, at least not for me. I may give it a while and wait until the official release to see if any thing changes. I am more cautious now before buying new games.

 

To the best of my knowledge, there is no NDA on the current Beta round.

 

The beta has no nda. YouTube will give you about 50 streams and reviews if you want to check it out.

 

He is the studio lead I believe.

 

OK thanks - since the NDA is up I'll share my thoughts. Also I'll state I'm sure they've made improvements since alpha, I haven't played in several months. I got in at the earliest point of alpha.

It was extremely twitchy. The fighting mechanics were not for me. It felt like they were trying to mash up a first person fighting game with an RPG. The quests were...uninspired. The look and feel was not appealing. I basically didn't enjoy it at all. Gaming is very subjective, but I think some of us on this forum have things in common (approximate age range, a former love of EQ style gaming, etc).

My husband, who played EQ2 but also plays things like Call of Duty and first person shooters, tried it as well and also didn't like it at all for what it's worth.

 

Steam account required? That kills it dead, right there. And why on earth would Amazon need to distribute via Steam?

 

To me, it's a case of why set up your own distribution when you can use Steam?

Steam is highly popular everywhere, and seems a logical choice.

 

I gotta believe the intent is wrap their games up under prime (eventually). But right now, steam's 30% cut is the least of their problems.

Everything we've come to know as true about corporate studios exists gloriously at AGS, qnd Smed should be right at home over there considering all the titles they've bought or developed that have been cancelled .

The article linked below summarizes a Bloomberg article where the authors interviewed 30 current and former employees, and that place is a mess (I read the original article, but I think it might require a subscription to see it. Google "Bloomberg Amazon Game Studios").

Anyway, as far as New World is concerned, my perception is, we've got 2 camps with no real area in between: (1) I #$%& hate this game, and (2) It's ok, I like that It's different.

Doubtful It's going to be any kind of big hit.

Bloomberg Report Details Major Dysfunction At Amazon Game Studios

 

No.

 

I can't discern what Smed's role is at AGS. His title is "Head of Studio", but there's that guy above him (can't remember his name, starts with an "F" or something" ) that runs everything.

It looks like there's separate or different studios under the AGS unmbrella, so maybe he runs one of those? Or he's sort of a glorified producer over the other producers???

 

Not that I've seen.

 

Some of the independent studio have very flat structures especially when they start out. I am thinking of the likes of Iron Gate Studio which did Valheim. Factorio devs are similar I believe.

 

I'll give my impressions of the game a bit later. Sum it up as "comfortable, positive, not world-shaking but doesn't need to be".

I predict it will benefit from the meltdown of WoW, regardless of its own merits or drawbacks. And there's nothing implicitly wrong with that.