New World’s Cash Shop Will Contain Purely Cosmetic Items Until 2022 Says Amazon

Here’s some controversial news from Amazon Game Studios. The studio came under fire from the New World community when they started testing the in-game cash shop earlier this month, which, contrary to the team’s earlier promises, contained a variety of boosters.

Amazon was quick to comment on the leak to assure the community that all items in the cash shop will be purely cosmetic at launch and that they were merely testing the waters to see how players would react.

“The store will allow in-game purchases for cosmetic items outside of our deluxe edition and pre-order bonuses,” the team explained. “We have received a lot of feedback already, and believe it’s important to make the store visible now for players to experience and test directly. Items in the store during Alpha will be purely cosmetic and provide no gameplay advantages.”

“As the game evolves, we may add new categories of store items based on our players’ desires,” they added. “We may make mistakes which is why we’re testing and engaging with our community to solicit feedback. The Alpha store test will include an example skin, emote, and dyes (these are not the exact items we will sell when live, but give you an idea of the type and flavor).”

Of course, “at launch” doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be selling boosters after the game comes out. The studio later admitted that they might add experience boosters and similar items after launch, specifically sometime in 2022.

“We won’t consider selling anything other than cosmetic items until 2022 at the earliest,” the studio said. “Well after launch, we will consider ideas for items that influence mechanics like rested XP both through the store and earned in-game. This would allow late-to-the-game players entering Aeternum to catch up at a pace most comfortable to them and fight alongside their friends in endgame content, while not creating a ‘pay to win’ environment.

Amazon, however, promised that boosters, should they decide to add them, will also be obtainable through regular in-game methods.

New World is scheduled for release on August 31. More information can be found on the official site.