Free weekend and deep discount for Amazon Game Studios’ New World

Amazon Game Studios is hosting a Steam Free Weekend for its new MMO (massively multiplayer online) game New World. Between 10 AM PT on April 7 and 10 AM PT on April 11, players can try out the game for free.
After the free weekend, players who want to continue playing the game will have to purchase the Standard or Deluxe Edition of the game on Steam or Amazon. All the in-game progress made during the free weekend will be saved so that players can continue where they left off if they decide to become paying customers.
The game studio says that it will merge free servers after the Steam Free Weekend “to ensure healthy world populations”, according to the company. This could offset the steep drop off in player count that could happen after the game stops being available for free.

While the event is aimed at attracting new players to the game, the company is also offering a new free item for exing players: a “Black Bear Pelt Rug Housing” item. Exing players can claim the item for free till April 18.
Apart from the free weekend, the game is also being given a heavy discount of 40 per cent for both editions till April 18. This means that the Standard and Deluxe editions of New World will cost Rs 899 and Rs 1,079 till the end of the offer period.
The free weekend in combination with the discount could be Amazon Game Studio’s technique to overcome the huge drop in the game’s popularity since its initial release in September 2021. According to SteamDB, the game had a total of more than 913,000 users playing the game at the peak of its popularity about six months ago. Currently, it averages between 20,000 and 30,000 users.