Amazon Won't Reduce New World War Player Count Following Feedback

New World will not see the player count of its 50v50 PVP Wars reduced following player feedback, Amazon Games has confirmed.

"Based on the feedback we received, we're going to hold off on the 40v40 change," a member of the New World team writes on the game's forums. "We were hoping to get it tested in PTR to validate our view that it plays better. But that hasn't happened yet, and we underestimated how important losing 20 people in War is. Even if it is slightly better for the 80 people, those 20 missing out are really hurt."

Massive inter-faction PVP Wars between rival guilds with in-game territory on the line is one of the main appeals of Amazon's MMORPG New World, but those large-scale battles also come with their own problems. Performance issues and lag have been concerns in War since the game's launch, as having 100 players all in one small area strains the server and causes performance to dip. Reducing the player count was one proposed solution, but Amazon said in an earlier forum post that improving performance wasn't the only reason for the now-shelved change.

"While we love the epic-ness of 50v50, when we tested 40v40 internally, War still felt grand while playing better--felt a bit less chaotic, was easier to coordinate teams, and Wars felt a bit more tactical," Amazon wrote.

The main reason a reduction in the number of players in War had many in the community upset revolved around how difficult it can be to participate in War in the first place. The companies (aka guilds) engaging in the War get to decide who will participate based on who signs up. Sometimes this means one larger company will field an entire army themselves, while other smaller companies will have to recruit players from other companies to aid in the fight. Reducing the War player count would simply mean fewer players would get to participate in what is one of New World's most engaging and high-stakes features.

The idea of creating a more low-stakes version of War that players can participate in without in-game territory up for grabs has been floated, but such an addition is "far in the future," according to Amazon. Once there are more ways for players to participate in Wars, Amazon has stated that it may return to the idea of 40v40 Wars.

New World is slated to receive new endgame content and a new weapon, the Blunderbuss, later this month. The new content is currently being tested on the game's public test realm.