After their team-based shooter Crucible failed to meet expectations, Amazon did something a little bit unexpected - they pulled it from storefronts and put it back into closed beta. The reasoning, as you might imagine, is to ensure that once Crucible sees the light of day again, it will do so as a fully finished and polished game.

With that in mind, it also shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to hear that Amazon is doing the same thing with their upcoming MMO New World. Instead of having New World launch this August in a half-finished state, they have decided to push its release date back all the way to spring 2021.

"With our August 25th launch approaching, we have been scrutinizing our feature list, taking input from our Alpha audience, and listening to what they enjoyed (or didn’t!) about the current game," reads the developer update. "We're incredibly grateful for all of the support and suggestions from our Alpha players, ranging from the folks who spent thousands of hours in New World to those who just sampled -- it's all valuable."

"We want our players to feel completely immersed in the game, and know that our studio stands for quality and lasting gameplay you can trust — and that means added time to get things where we want them before we fully release. We don't make the decision lightly, and we have urgency about getting the game to you as quickly as possible at the best quality -- with some additions that will make the experience even better."

If you've signed up for the beta, or if you've already pre-ordered New World, expect to see an email around August 25th with instructions on how to check out the full version for a brief time. What exactly this sneak peek will contain, I'm afraid I don't know, but more details should be coming in the near future.

You can keep an eye on such an announcement, as well as read the full developer update, over at the New World website.