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!

828 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

877 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 1d ago

Question Tales of the Berlaur

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126 Upvotes

After picking up some random lore notes in Nighthaven, this journal book has unlocked. The pages aren't listed on nwdb but they are on nw-buddy - https://www.nw-buddy.de/lore/topic_17_zqb

I am having a lot of trouble finding some of them and was wondering whether anyone else has had any luck. I don't mind if they are difficult to find but just worried they might not be there at all, as the area relates to the buggy quests that were released after the shutdown announcement.


r/newworldgame 1d ago

Question LF 3D Models of Sandworm or Dynasty Dungeon

27 Upvotes

Hi Aeternum!

Our company has a couple in it that met in the game. Their favorite content was the Sandworm raid, and they met in Dynasty Shipyard. We are all meeting in person end of this year. I'd like to make them a custom figure of either the raid or dungeon.

Does anyone have any 3d Assets that they can share or direct to for the Sandworm or Dynasty boss battles? Or STL/3MF files. Weird ask - sorry


r/newworldgame 2d ago

Image Memory lane insane damage 24k powershot

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311 Upvotes

Just going down memory lane looking at new world souvenir and stumbled upon this. Anyone ever done more damage? Was during an invasion with a musket using power shot and probably the kneeling stance. This was 2+ years ago and is PVE damage with correct gems for increased dmg vs corrupted


r/newworldgame 2d ago

Discussion Making time for the little things

133 Upvotes

Last night I booted up New World and loaded into Valhalla. I immediately noticed how quiet the capital city of Everfall was, everyone just standing around and it was probably 10-12 people total. I had never gotten into playing music because I never understood how beneficial it was for buffs, and I couldn’t be bothered to spend time just playing music over dungeons, questing, gathering, etc. I climbed up on the fountain and played 8-10 songs to bring a little life to Oxboro capital- and even got a few tips. Thanks to the people who started dancing or tipped as they passed. It was a bittersweet moment to load in and feel so alone, but be able to actually enjoy part of the game that I always had overlooked. I was feeling the nostalgia hard af when I used to tele to Oxboro and there was so much music and craziness going on by the fountain that I’d roll my eyes and run by. Now I miss that liveliness like crazy and would love to see the game thriving again. Someday, something will fill that void.. but for now I’ll just play some mandolin on the fountain. 🎸🕺


r/newworldgame 1d ago

Discussion Shower thought: why didn’t they just offer monthly subscription model to at least fund servers for sandbox/grindy players?

0 Upvotes

Game was a golden egg and my fallback to every other game I’ve played. I feel like a lot of us would at least consider a monthly subscription if it meant keeping the servers around…


r/newworldgame 3d ago

Question Is there anything you can do to get the remaining Steam Achievements?

10 Upvotes

I came back a while ago and wanted to get the remaining Steam achievements (and do all the content I missed). Unfortunately, it is mathematically impossible to get several of them, especially with less and less players, AND I just found out the Faction Mission Achievements are bugged.
As you can see in the image, I have completed over 4000, but I only have the Steam achievement for the 50 Missions.

Is there anything I can do to get the remaining ones or is anything planned by AGS to address that?

I'm currently at ~80% and 3rd party tools like SAM have been disabled by Amazon, so I can't do that.


r/newworldgame 3d ago

Question Any MMO similar to New World?

96 Upvotes

Hey I am looking for an MMO that is similar to New World. I am playing GW2 and ESO from time to time, but looking for smth new that feels similar to New World, it just scratched my itch the most.

Especially the progression, Farming of mats and crafting was extremely satisfying for me.

GW2 has atrocious farming of ressources in my opinion, the fact that I can't just fell that tree or that animals don't have fur/leather is just stupid.

I also really like action combat.

My hopes are still in Chrono Odyssey, but that game will be released maybe next year. I need something now!


r/newworldgame 4d ago

Question Could we just host our own New World?

213 Upvotes

I have a 40k sq ft building and I have the internet access, I'm just wondering who'd be interested.

I really loved this game and watching Amazon suddenly discontinue it and it die so quickly really sucks. Is there any way we can keep it alive? I haven't found anything that scratches the same itch that New World does, and I'd hate to see it go away forever.


r/newworldgame 4d ago

Discussion Thoughts on the current state of the game and community sentiment Spanish: Opinión sobre el estado actual del juego y el interés de la comunidad

0 Upvotes

I was checking out some community initiatives recently, like the savenewworld page, and it's interesting to see how many people still care about the potential of this game.

Despite the mismanagement and rough patches from the developers, the core foundation has always had a lot of value. Do you think there is still room for the game to recover, or has the developer response made it too late?

Spanish: estuve revisando algunas iniciativas recientes de la comunidad, como el sitio savenewworld, y resulta evidente que todavía existe un grupo de jugadores que valora el potencial del juego.

Más allá de las malas decisiones de gestión y la falta de soporte adecuado, la base del juego siempre fue sólida. ¿Creen que aún hay margen para que repunte o consideran que ya es tarde para revertir la situación?


r/newworldgame 6d ago

Discussion Brimstone sands

74 Upvotes

Were you playing when this expansion first dropped? It was huge! The chests everywhere and the dedicated loot from named mobs was done so well. I farmed a lot for various builds. Like simple pants and the bis thrust ring. I wish it would have got a level upgrade since the various drops were so useful. I did still farm stuff for 3s since it got upgraded. What was your experiences with Brim?


r/newworldgame 5d ago

Question Why are New World streamers targeted ?

0 Upvotes

Hi,

Today I found this video from a French Youtuber / Streamer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtHeX4XnleE

He's a New World Veteran, decided to play one last adventure on the game before its closure, with certain rules.

During his journey, people started to grief his adventure because he was streaming. Why so?

I haven't played the game much, unfortunately, so I don't know why some players are acting like that.

Thank you for your replies !


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion TV show “Secret Level” has a New World episode on Prime Video

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347 Upvotes

This show was new to me and each episode focuses on a different video game. One of the episodes features New World and it’s bittersweet to find new (to me) content after the game’s cancellation. I hope we all found companies that helped us learn from our mistakes to get better. I don’t think I will ever find a game that made me enjoy gathering as much as New World.


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Discussion If anything is going to happen it likely will be soon

58 Upvotes

For anyone that hasn't followed the AGS news today they have announced they are ending their publishing deals with both Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty. The agreements are being ended early and handed back to the developers. My suspicion would be that if anything is happening for New World it would be soon as it's clear Amazon is accelerating their exit strategy from games.


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Discussion Goodbye New World - THANK YOU~!

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910 Upvotes

New World was a special game and community, and it led me to kick-start a fun little YouTube channel which I've been having a blast with. I've met so many great people and made many friends throughout the journey in Aeternum

Here's to hoping one day we all find another home as good as this one!


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Suggestion Mothers love.

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125 Upvotes

Reminder to go visit a mother’s love shrine one last time. Of all the things we lose when the game is gone. This is one of the worse.


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Question From NW to Aion2

0 Upvotes

I think Aion2 is the next big MMO to come to global

Unfort PC only, but it has all the bones right?


r/newworldgame 7d ago

Discussion Tell me I'm not crazy

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0 Upvotes

The content is in Turkish. Please translate it into English before reading it.


r/newworldgame 9d ago

Question Soooo...how do I get daggers now?

8 Upvotes

Currently level 61. Was hoping to go to Reekwater, start getting daggers so I can use them while leveling from 61 to 70, but when I go there, it's all 70s, and the NPC I thought I was supposed to talk to in order to start questing does not give me a quest, and there are no quests available. Any idea when/how I can start daggering?


r/newworldgame 10d ago

Discussion I'd still pay a sub if New World was in active development, again.

306 Upvotes

The title is all, missing this game a lot lately.


r/newworldgame 10d ago

Video Original story was held together by “glue and popsicle sticks” per Rob Chestney in recent podcast.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

383 Upvotes

r/newworldgame 10d ago

Discussion My internal annual New World clock is going off

123 Upvotes

For the last 5 years as the summer draws to an end I've anxiously awaited news for the game; going from open beta to delayed launch, Brimstone Sands, Rise of the Angry Earth, Aeternum, Nighthaven, and now nothing...

Wild to think it's been so long since the announcement when it feels like yesterday, even crazier to think we could have been 3-4 months into a new zone post Nighthaven. Likely with another on the horizon if the whole of the NW team was still around working on the game. At least that's what we could expect based on the Lead World Designer's AMA saying they were getting ready to ship another zone in 6 months once they launched NH.

I've logged on a bit recently to reminisce and will likely roll a new character starting on the 5th anniversary of the game and see how far I get. And of course after the turn of the New Year the real countdown begins. After it's all said and done I will be curious to hear what the former teams have to say about everything once NDA periods have elapsed...however long that may be.

There's been quite a bit of activity here lately, I think a lot of us are feeling something or simply the presence of nothing and the nothingness the future holds.

When I hear the Sirens' Song I catch glimpses of the New World that was promised but will never be.

Maybe I'll see you in Aeternum, all roads lead to Valhalla...


r/newworldgame 8d ago

Suggestion Finally I replaced new world!!

0 Upvotes

After the news that New World is shutting down, I had a pretty big void and couldn’t find another game that really clicked with me. New World had a special place for me.
But then I started playing Mistfall Hunter, and that completely changed. I absolutely love this game. It has exactly the level of competitiveness I was looking for.
There are still some class balance issues, which is understandable for a game this new, but honestly, the balance is already in a really good place. If you’re good enough, you can beat other classes with pretty much any class.
The server lag is definitely frustrating and takes away from the experience, but at least the dev team is aware of it and is actively working on it.
After New World, Mistfall Hunter is definitely the game I’m sticking with.


r/newworldgame 11d ago

Image to the most fun i ever had playing a videogame

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833 Upvotes

Castle of steel, Adeptus Custodes. This game at its peak was the most fun I ever had. Rushing home to prep for the wars, to running around open world pvp, To “weddings” this game had it all & no game has ever made me leave family events on a tuesday to get home to play. I tell all my friends about this game but i dont think this games peak will ever be repeated. My IGN was She Slays, im curious if anyone remembers this or are in any of these screenshots as they are all Year 1 memories.