Amazon Game Studios announced that they have been forced to delay its upcoming MMO New World from May to August due to the global slowdown caused by the ongoing spread of COVID-19. The New World closed beta has also been delayed to July, pushed back from its original April 2020 launch.

In a new blog post, Amazon Games announced that despite developers working on the game from home, “developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges.”

This is why the developers opted to delay the launch “to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future,” said post.

New World is an upcoming MMO from Amazon Game Studios. Set in a fictional world, players will take up the role of colonists exploring a new land terrorized by supernatural monsters. Players will scavenge for resources and build settlements that they’ll then have to defend from monsters and other players.

“Like most of you, our entire team has been sequestered as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. We want to make sure that we have the time needed to make New World the very best it can be for our players,” the post continues.

New World will launch as a player-vs-player-vs-environment survival game with a heavy focus on team cooperation. Players will need to explore, acquire resources, and expand more efficiently than their opponents if they want to emerge victorious.