New World Will be “a Big Hit” – Amazon Games Exec

Amazon might be one of the biggest companies in the world, but when it comes to the games industry, it hasn’t had great luck. Breakaway and Crucible were both high-profile failure, and understandably enough, there’s quite a bit of skepticism surrounding their future in the industry.

Their upcoming MMORPG New World, however, has looked promising in all that’s been shown of it so far, and if the response to its closed beta a couple of months ago was any indication, people seem to be curious to see what it will have in store as well. And Amazon, it seems, is very confident about the game’s prospects as well.

Speaking with GamesIndustry, Amazon Game Studios vice president Christoph Hartmann said that though many people have written New World of, Amazon itself has every intention of continuing to invest in games. Hartmann predicts that New World will be “a big hit” and will help propel Amazon Games to new heights, as their first big product that helps them prove themselves.

“I think New World is coming out of left field for many people because I think they wrote it off, I think they thought it was never going to happen,” Hartmann said. “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. There’s many businesses that weren’t a home run from the beginning and just kept going and going for 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.”

Even though with the likes of Crucible and Breakaway Amazon Game Studios doesn’t exactly have the best track record, it seems the company has ever intention of continuing to invest in games. Recently, for instance, Amazon opened up a new studio in Montreal, where they’re working on a new online IP. Shortly before that, however, their The Lord of the Rings MMO, which had been in the works for a while, was cancelled.