New World is Expected to be a „Huge Hit” - Amazon Games VP Explains Why
Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, has recently given an interview to GamesIndustry.biz. He stressed that his team has learned from previous failures and believes New World will be a success.
- During an interview with GamesIndustry.biz Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games studio, expressed hope that the MMORPG New World will be a success;
- He stressed that his team has the comfort of not having to rush, so they have time to work everything out;
- The lack of rush is a consequence of lessons learned from failures such as Crucible and Breakaway.
New World has a chance to, at least for a while, stir things up on the MMORPG market. For a long time this title has been in the top bestsellers on Steam. But will it manage to stay in the minds of the players for longer? Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, formerly of 2K Games, believes that his team will succeed.
On what does he base his faith? He explains it in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. According to his words, Amazon Games studio has learned the right lessons from the failures of the network shooter Crucible, which was shutdown in November 2020, and the canceled co-op game Breakaway. First, the team decided not to push with their productions in areas of the market that have definite leaders.
"We launched Crucible at a time when PUBG and Fortnite were super, super big. It was not the right decision to go into a market segment that has such big players everyone's always chasing. It's like trying to beat Call of Duty at its peak, or trying to do another Grand Theft Auto."
And secondly, the team from Amazon Games will release the game only when they are sure that it is ready. This is where all these delays in New World's release come from. The developers just wanted to make sure they were getting everything right this time.
"We have the advantage that we're not held hostage by quarters or fiscal years like traditional games developers are. So let's do the right thing for the player, not rush it out because, 'we have to hit October, and if I don't I have to hit March.' Yes, we have to build a business but we know that sometimes a month or two makes all the difference for a game. That's what really matters because we're making multiplayer service games and they have to be in the marketplace for ten years, so rushing something doesn't make sense."
In this context, Hartmann compared the creation of New World to climbing Mount Everest. It was necessary to start from scratch, assemble the right team, and only then would you calmly complete the steps before attempting to reach the summit.
It may come as a bit of a surprise to some that Amazon's chief executives are so lenient with their games division's unhurried pace, especially since they're putting a lot of money into it ($500 million a year, according to unofficial reports). According to Hartmann, many companies don't realize that when you enter a market you don't immediately become a big player there, and it takes patience to get there. Amazon seems to understand this.
"When you look at Amazon's history, if they believe in something, they really go for it in the long-term, they don't give up. (...) I see a lot of enthusiasm for games within the company, a lot of support -- and that's increasing, rather than people getting fed up with it. (...) I have no indication that the company is getting tired of its gaming division, I just see support left and right. And once we deliver a big hit, which I think New World will be, we'll just get even more support because we've proven ourselves."
Whether Hartmann's hopes turn out to be misplaced, we should find out soon. New World is set to debut exclusively on PC on September 28.
