New World: Aeternum Will Be Merging Cross-Play Servers, Netting A Lose Of 6 Total Servers

Here we are, the inevitable server merges are coming to New World: Aeternum. In total, we'll be seeing the overall count of cross-play servers will be reduced by 6 as 12 servers are set to merge down to six. This isn't unusual after an MMORPG launches, but what is a bit unusual this time around is how fast this is happening to an MMO (although they don't call it that anymore...) that was basically just adding console players to the mix...and the fact that the console launch was only a little over a month ago.

According to the team's post on X, these mergers only impact cross-play worlds. Legacy and console-only worlds aren't being touched yet. Amazon Games will continue to monitor populations and update accordingly. I expect this means there's more merges coming.

📢Upcoming Game World Merges📢
In our ongoing effort to enhance your gaming experience, we'll be merging several game worlds. We'll continue to monitor population trends and adapt as needed.

🌐Impacted Worlds
Several world populations will merge:
- Artorius (SA East) → Devaloka…

— New World Game Status (@NWGameStatus) November 21, 2024

The destination worlds are shown in the tweet above, but there's a few details added, too. Keep in mind, this is all cross-play world to cross-play world, so if you opt for a different new home, make sure it is still cross-play.

This Monday, the 25th, will see the cutting off of character creation and transfers to the world being shut down turned off. Between the 25th and December 5th, if you are on a world shutting down, you can transfer to a cross-play world in your region. Console players will get the ability to buy transfer tokens the morning of the 25th.

On the 5th, territories will be refunded, characters will be transferred, and if you happened to use a token to transfer from a disabled world to its designated receiving world, you'll get that token back.

When I first saw the tweet, I actually waited to type up this news. I wanted to reach out to the New World team for a bit of clarification. The post mentions console players getting the ability to buy transfer tokens, but is a little vague on their usage.

What I THINK that means is if players on a world being disabled want to transfer to a world other than the new home world designated above, then you need to buy a token for that. If you're fine being sent to the world New World designated as your new home in their tweet, you can just stand pat and let the merges happen.

If the team gets back to me, I'll update this post for sure.