Spider-Man producers Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige have shared more about the development of Spider-Man: No Way Home and teased that Disney/Marvel and Sony are "actively beginning to develop" Spidey's next story, which just may end up being Spider-Man 4.

In an interview with The New York Times, Pascal and Feige were asked about both the next stand-alone Spider-Man movie and the recent comments that confirmed Sony and Disney would be working together on at least three more Spider-Man films together.

"We’re producers, so we always believe everything will work out," Pascal said. "I love working with Kevin. We have a great partnership, along with Tom Rothman, who runs Sony and has been instrumental, a great leader with great ideas. I hope it lasts forever."

Feige added that not only are they working together, but that they are "actively beginning to develop" where Spider-Man's story goes next. Whether this is Spider-Man 4 or another cameo remains to be seen, but fans will be happy to know they are already hard at work on the next steps for Tom Holland's Peter Parker.

He also shared that he revealed this info because he doesn't want to have another situation similar to what happened after Spider-Man: Far From Home where Sony and Disney/Marvel almost didn't make another Spider-Man film together.

"Amy and I and Disney and Sony are talking about — yes, we’re actively beginning to develop where the story heads next, which I only say outright because I don’t want fans to go through any separation trauma like what happened after “Far From Home” [the previous Spider-Man movie, in 2019]. That will not be occurring this time," Feige said.

SPOILERS AHEAD for Spider-Man: No Way Home!!!

"At the end of the movie we just made, you see Spider-Man make a momentous decision, one that you’ve never seen him make before," Pascal added. "It’s a sacrifice. And that gives us a lot to work with for the next film."

Pascal also discussed her thoughts on the studios somehow being able to "top" Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw the addition of a ton of actors from Spider-Man's history.

"Not every Spider-Man movie is going to be a multitude of characters," Pascal said. "That approach was right for this one. You can’t think about topping yourself in terms of spectacle. Otherwise movies just get larger and larger for no reason, and it’s not a good result. But we do want to always try and top ourselves in terms of quality and emotion.

"Kevin and I never want to lose sight of one thing: Peter Parker. That he’s a normal kid. That he is orphaned over and over again. That he’s a teenager, so everything in his life is at a heightened pitch and everything matters more than anything. That he’s fueled by goodness and guilt. That he’s striving for a greater cause, and he’s vilified by the press."

The pair went on to discuss how they managed to get all these actors back in the Spider-Man universe and, while they didn't go too much into specifics, they shared a bit about the process and how they convinced those who were a bit skeptical about the whole thing.

"That these weren’t going to be cash-grab cameos," Pascal said. "The parts were real. That I was there with them the first time and would be again, that I have too much respect for them and all the work we did together over the years."

While many rejoiced and celebrated when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield once again became their versions of Spider-Man, there are those who were also hoping for an appearance by Spider-Man's Kirsten Dunst and Amazing Spider-Man's Emma Stone.

"When people see the movie, they will understand," Feige said. "It’s about the story. It was a big goal for all of us — Amy and Jon and our writers, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers — that Peter Parker’s senior year in high school didn’t get lost amid the insanity that ensues thanks to his encounter with Doctor Strange. That easily could have happened. And that’s the reason there’s not another 20 people in the movie."

Pascal and Feige were also asked by NYT's Brooks Barnes if we were "ever going to see a woman with superpowers alongside Spider-Man." It was then brought up that there is a story line in the comics where MJ gets to try out the Iron Spider armor. While Pascal gave a "coy smile" and simply said, "never say never," Feige revealed a bit more of their philosophy.

"We have a lot of story lines, Brooks! A lot of story lines," Feige said. "It comes down to these great, great actors. My guess is your question is less about what MJ did in the comics and more about 'Zendaya is really great. Can we see more of her?'"

Pascal and Feige have now worked together for three Spider-Man films and a few cameos in other MCU films, and they both talked about how their partnership began with a cry for help after the "rather wobbly" Amazing Spider-Man 2.

"That is the truth," Pascal revealed. "I called Kevin and said, 'Help.' And then he came over to my office for lunch and said, 'I know how to help you.' And then I threw a sandwich at him."

"She said, 'I really want you to help on this next movie. We have these great ideas for the next one. It’s amazing stuff,' Feige said. "And I said, 'I’m not good at that — giving advice and leaving. The only way I know how to help is if we just make the movie for you."

"And then Kevin called me and came over to the house and said, 'I have an idea. What if Tony Stark makes Peter’s suit?' And as soon as he said that, I understood the possibilities of what we could do together," Pascal concluded. 'To have Iron Man and Spidey in the same world, one rooted more in technological innovation — the new suit — and less in medical experimentation, which is where we were confined before, felt so much more modern."

This interview is filled with other great little details, including a confirmation that Pascal once FaceTimed with Tom Holland in a bathtub. Unfortunately, Pascal isn't one to FaceTime and tell and won't share any more of the details of that fateful bath conversation.

For more on Spider-Man: No Way Home - which has already earned $50 million from its Thursday "preview" screenings, check out our review of the film, our explainer of the ending and the post-credits scenes, and our 10 biggest WTF questions after leaving the theater.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Spider-Man producers Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige have shared more about the development of Spider-Man: No Way Home and teased that Disney/Marvel and Sony are "actively beginning to develop" Spidey's next story, which just may end up being Spider-Man 4.

In an interview with The New York Times, Pascal and Feige were asked about both the next stand-alone Spider-Man movie and the recent comments that confirmed Sony and Disney would be working together on at least three more Spider-Man films together.

"We’re producers, so we always believe everything will work out," Pascal said. "I love working with Kevin. We have a great partnership, along with Tom Rothman, who runs Sony and has been instrumental, a great leader with great ideas. I hope it lasts forever."

Feige added that not only are they working together, but that they are "actively beginning to develop" where Spider-Man's story goes next. Whether this is Spider-Man 4 or another cameo remains to be seen, but fans will be happy to know they are already hard at work on the next steps for Tom Holland's Peter Parker.

He also shared that he revealed this info because he doesn't want to have another situation similar to what happened after Spider-Man: Far From Home where Sony and Disney/Marvel almost didn't make another Spider-Man film together.

"Amy and I and Disney and Sony are talking about — yes, we’re actively beginning to develop where the story heads next, which I only say outright because I don’t want fans to go through any separation trauma like what happened after “Far From Home” [the previous Spider-Man movie, in 2019]. That will not be occurring this time," Feige said.

SPOILERS AHEAD for Spider-Man: No Way Home!!!

"At the end of the movie we just made, you see Spider-Man make a momentous decision, one that you’ve never seen him make before," Pascal added. "It’s a sacrifice. And that gives us a lot to work with for the next film."

Pascal also discussed her thoughts on the studios somehow being able to "top" Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw the addition of a ton of actors from Spider-Man's history.

"Not every Spider-Man movie is going to be a multitude of characters," Pascal said. "That approach was right for this one. You can’t think about topping yourself in terms of spectacle. Otherwise movies just get larger and larger for no reason, and it’s not a good result. But we do want to always try and top ourselves in terms of quality and emotion.

"Kevin and I never want to lose sight of one thing: Peter Parker. That he’s a normal kid. That he is orphaned over and over again. That he’s a teenager, so everything in his life is at a heightened pitch and everything matters more than anything. That he’s fueled by goodness and guilt. That he’s striving for a greater cause, and he’s vilified by the press."

The pair went on to discuss how they managed to get all these actors back in the Spider-Man universe and, while they didn't go too much into specifics, they shared a bit about the process and how they convinced those who were a bit skeptical about the whole thing.

"That these weren’t going to be cash-grab cameos," Pascal said. "The parts were real. That I was there with them the first time and would be again, that I have too much respect for them and all the work we did together over the years."

While many rejoiced and celebrated when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield once again became their versions of Spider-Man, there are those who were also hoping for an appearance by Spider-Man's Kirsten Dunst and Amazing Spider-Man's Emma Stone.

"When people see the movie, they will understand," Feige said. "It’s about the story. It was a big goal for all of us — Amy and Jon and our writers, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers — that Peter Parker’s senior year in high school didn’t get lost amid the insanity that ensues thanks to his encounter with Doctor Strange. That easily could have happened. And that’s the reason there’s not another 20 people in the movie."

Pascal and Feige were also asked by NYT's Brooks Barnes if we were "ever going to see a woman with superpowers alongside Spider-Man." It was then brought up that there is a story line in the comics where MJ gets to try out the Iron Spider armor. While Pascal gave a "coy smile" and simply said, "never say never," Feige revealed a bit more of their philosophy.

"We have a lot of story lines, Brooks! A lot of story lines," Feige said. "It comes down to these great, great actors. My guess is your question is less about what MJ did in the comics and more about 'Zendaya is really great. Can we see more of her?'"

Pascal and Feige have now worked together for three Spider-Man films and a few cameos in other MCU films, and they both talked about how their partnership began with a cry for help after the "rather wobbly" Amazing Spider-Man 2.

"That is the truth," Pascal revealed. "I called Kevin and said, 'Help.' And then he came over to my office for lunch and said, 'I know how to help you.' And then I threw a sandwich at him."

"She said, 'I really want you to help on this next movie. We have these great ideas for the next one. It’s amazing stuff,' Feige said. "And I said, 'I’m not good at that — giving advice and leaving. The only way I know how to help is if we just make the movie for you."

"And then Kevin called me and came over to the house and said, 'I have an idea. What if Tony Stark makes Peter’s suit?' And as soon as he said that, I understood the possibilities of what we could do together," Pascal concluded. 'To have Iron Man and Spidey in the same world, one rooted more in technological innovation — the new suit — and less in medical experimentation, which is where we were confined before, felt so much more modern."

This interview is filled with other great little details, including a confirmation that Pascal once FaceTimed with Tom Holland in a bathtub. Unfortunately, Pascal isn't one to FaceTime and tell and won't share any more of the details of that fateful bath conversation.

For more on Spider-Man: No Way Home - which has already earned $50 million from its Thursday "preview" screenings, check out our review of the film, our explainer of the ending and the post-credits scenes, and our 10 biggest WTF questions after leaving the theater.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

It's been close to three months since New World, the musket-toting MMO, welcomed players to the beaches of Aeternum, a land of bears, cranberries and piratical skeletons. Squeezed into those two fall months were enough bugs, controversies, and economic crises to last other games an entire year.

First, it became so popular you had to join a queue to play, then a bug allowed players to duplicate gold, then supply-and-demand weirdness led to some players returning to a barter-style economy. Now that player numbers have dropped, the developers are hoping to catch their breath.

We spoke to a director at Amazon Games about what went wrong, what he'd do differently if he had the chance, and how (with small changes and a bit of diligence) they hope to make things right.

"We are reviewing our cadence," says Scot Lane, game director at Amazon Games. "[It] is no secret we’ve made some mistakes trying to move too fast. Our goal is to slow down for a bit and improve our processes."

Lane is talking about the monthly updates, but he could easily be speaking about the game's hectic birth. When it launched in late September, millions clamored to join what seemed to be the first blockbuster MMORPG released in years, which promised a deep player-driven economy and high-quality player-versus-player combat. But where there's a big game launch, there are server woes. Even Amazon, barons of internet infrastructure, did not have enough servers ready for the waves of explorers queueing to chop down trees and fight the undead.

In response, the studio doubled the servers, and blocked players from joining already overpopulated ones. Almost a month after release, the studio finally let players swap from one server to another. That is until server hoppers quickly noticed they could duplicate coins by glitching the transfer process. Less than 24 hours after introducing this most basic feature of MMOs, the developers switched it off to stop players abusing that exploit.

This is the short version of the game's challenging launch. For all the fun players were having skinning boars and firing muskets at one another, Amazon Studios was beset by crashes and controversy. There were even reports it was bricking some expensive graphics cards. This was later revealed to be caused by manufacturing faults by the card producer, EVGA.

Now that the baby-faced MMO has made it through those first few months, the developers are happy to talk a little more frankly about that opening salvo of difficulties, the future of the game, and their baptism by bug report.

"We were nervous about stability and crashes, moreso than exploits and dupes," says Lane. "I think we all know how wrong we were on our assumptions."

Milk and honey

The busy launch has had a knock-on effect. It was the plan to add fresh features to the game once a month. We've already seen the Void Gauntlet (a new weapon) and the winter events now playable in test servers. But after an overwhelmingly populous launch, the studio is rethinking how revolutionary they can feasibly be in 30-day bursts.

"We will still have monthly releases," says Lane, "but some will be more focused on bugs and balance than new features."

A focus on bug-stomping makes sense, considering how threatening one simple bug can be to a mystical island with infinite trees but finite coin. New World has seen more than one glitch that makes it possible for players to duplicate gold currency, or in one case duplicate a trophy that could be sold for those envied dubloons.

The first time a gold-duping bug like this reared its head, the developers knew they had to act fast. A flood of new money could wreck the already temperamental economy. Imagine if everyone in the US suddenly knew how to counterfeit perfect dollar bills with a few mouse clicks. What would happen to the price of milk?

"We had alarms going off informing us," says Lane, "and then it was backed up by players letting us know via forums, Reddit, etc... My personal reaction was frustration. We want to focus on gameplay and improving the experience, so when we have bugs, exploits, and things like that it detracts from what we really want to be doing."

The devs shut down wealth transfers and rooted out offending players with bans. The markets didn't get swamped with illegitimate gold coins. A similar bug would rear its head twice more, and other problems would later threaten the economy but at least rampant inflation wouldn't be one of them. .

But it's not just bugs that can disrupt the circulation of cash, the developers quickly realized. In the same update that introduced the magical Void Gauntlet and its purple blasts of arcane destruction, players noted a more mundane change:

"Reduced the quantity of honey gained from apiaries by 50% and the amount of milk from cows by 65%," reads one fix on a long list. "The bees and cows are happy about this change."

This is the microscopic level at which MMO developers have long had to manipulate their worlds. New World is no different. Tiny changes like this not only control the volume of certain items in the world, says Lane, but are also designed to nudge players towards the wilderness, instead of hanging out in town, milking Bessie all day.

"Milk and honey are very versatile cooking ingredients, and the abundance and easy accessibility of them was unbalancing the need to pursue hunting, harvesting, and [finding] provisions chests in the world… For example, when players come across a tree covered in honeycombs, it should be an exciting harvesting moment, and that was not having the desired impact."

The free-ish market

Even with subtle changes beneficial to Bessie's udders, Lane admits the economy did not get "where we’d like it to be", particularly for high-level players who reach the endgame. The studio is considering other tweaks. They might make salvaging items more profitable, for example (this is when you get a few pennies for breaking down or "salvaging" materials from tools, armor or weapons). They're also aiming to make it "more accessible" to buy a house in one of the land's many townships, among other adjustments.

"This is a very delicate balance. [W]e’re continuously monitoring and looking for ways to improve to keep the economy competitive and avoiding massive inflation."

Economics is a dry topic. But two things are as unavoidable in New World as they are in our own: death and taxes. Even if you do buy that one-floor bungalow in the corner of Everfell village, you'll have to pay tax on it, cash that goes straight to whatever player-run gang controls the village. Considering the complaints of some players and their growing discontent for this fiefdom of levies and fees, it's tempting to think of New World as an experimental economic realm where Jeff Bezos can propagate the idea that all tax is bad, actually. This is a video game funded by Amazon, after all.

"That is not our intention," Lane says. "We just want to make a fun game that evolves based on our players’ actions…The tax is in place to create a connection and some friction with our factions and owning companies as well…"

In other words, the taxes are there to encourage the appearance of player governors with punitive Prince John ideas, and rowdy groups of Merry Men.

"Players, especially home owners, who feel gouged can band together and overthrow them via wars," says the director.

The Robin Hoods of this MMO have yet to appear in any charismatic form. But the Prince Johns have admittedly turned up, with a few of the more devious governors embezzling gold and running off to start life afresh on new servers. It's these player-made moments that Lane looks most fondly on as successes.

"One of my favorite experiences was walking into a tavern in Windsward and there was someone standing on a table singing (through VOIP) while others sat around watching and it was just cool.

"Thankfully, he had a good voice."

Listening through the noise

This, along with watching PvP ambushes unfold in real-time, have been highlights for the director of the studio. Yet they've come amid a flood of understandable complaints. Following the explosion of interest two months ago, New World's player numbers have dropped and leveled out at daily peaks of about 130,000, at least according to Steam Player Count (never a perfect tool, please note). It remains one of the most-played games on Steam, even if those numbers don't match the first spasms of hype.

"All MMOs experience a drop off after the initial surge," says Lane. "I think there are many reasons that happens, and we brought some of it on ourselves by introducing bugs into the environment. We are improving daily… and if we continue to do that I believe many player[s] will come back."

In the short term, that means fixes. In the long-term, the studio will be "growing Aeternum not only in size, but in variety and activities". Boar-killers and PvP death-dealers will be equally glad to learn new weapons are on the way. Though when asked what those will be, Lane holds the line.

"Marketing would kill me… I’d hate to make a great blunder and give out the wrong details on upcoming weapons so we’ll have to wait a bit."

Making an MMO is one of the more perilous projects a studio can undertake. Few have lasted as long as World of Warcraft or Eve Online, the weathered veterans of a notoriously difficult and occasionally profitable genre. If anyone has an insight into just how tough it can be, it's Lane and the rest of Amazon Games.

"If I could do it over again, knowing what I know now… I would find more ways to test for and protect against these hard-to-find but game-damaging issues."

And even then, if you don't squash all the bugs in time, the players will let you know.

"There can be a lot of noise," says Lane.

The solution, it turns out, is a lot like walking into that tavern in Windsward and listening as a player clambers on top of a table to blow some hot air. You've got to stand there and watch.

"It sounds like it should be simple, but it is a complex situation… Simply listening isn't enough, we discovered, it's just as important to follow up, to talk to our players, bring them into the discussion to show them we are listening.

"We look at this journey as a marathon," says Lane, "and we are barely out of the starting blocks."

Brendan Caldwell is a freelance writer at IGN

It's been close to three months since New World, the musket-toting MMO, welcomed players to the beaches of Aeternum, a land of bears, cranberries and piratical skeletons. Squeezed into those two fall months were enough bugs, controversies, and economic crises to last other games an entire year.

First, it became so popular you had to join a queue to play, then a bug allowed players to duplicate gold, then supply-and-demand weirdness led to some players returning to a barter-style economy. Now that player numbers have dropped, the developers are hoping to catch their breath.

We spoke to a director at Amazon Games about what went wrong, what he'd do differently if he had the chance, and how (with small changes and a bit of diligence) they hope to make things right.

"We are reviewing our cadence," says Scot Lane, game director at Amazon Games. "[It] is no secret we’ve made some mistakes trying to move too fast. Our goal is to slow down for a bit and improve our processes."

Lane is talking about the monthly updates, but he could easily be speaking about the game's hectic birth. When it launched in late September, millions clamored to join what seemed to be the first blockbuster MMORPG released in years, which promised a deep player-driven economy and high-quality player-versus-player combat. But where there's a big game launch, there are server woes. Even Amazon, barons of internet infrastructure, did not have enough servers ready for the waves of explorers queueing to chop down trees and fight the undead.

In response, the studio doubled the servers, and blocked players from joining already overpopulated ones. Almost a month after release, the studio finally let players swap from one server to another. That is until server hoppers quickly noticed they could duplicate coins by glitching the transfer process. Less than 24 hours after introducing this most basic feature of MMOs, the developers switched it off to stop players abusing that exploit.

This is the short version of the game's challenging launch. For all the fun players were having skinning boars and firing muskets at one another, Amazon Studios was beset by crashes and controversy. There were even reports it was bricking some expensive graphics cards. This was later revealed to be caused by manufacturing faults by the card producer, EVGA.

Now that the baby-faced MMO has made it through those first few months, the developers are happy to talk a little more frankly about that opening salvo of difficulties, the future of the game, and their baptism by bug report.

"We were nervous about stability and crashes, moreso than exploits and dupes," says Lane. "I think we all know how wrong we were on our assumptions."

Milk and honey

The busy launch has had a knock-on effect. It was the plan to add fresh features to the game once a month. We've already seen the Void Gauntlet (a new weapon) and the winter events now playable in test servers. But after an overwhelmingly populous launch, the studio is rethinking how revolutionary they can feasibly be in 30-day bursts.

"We will still have monthly releases," says Lane, "but some will be more focused on bugs and balance than new features."

A focus on bug-stomping makes sense, considering how threatening one simple bug can be to a mystical island with infinite trees but finite coin. New World has seen more than one glitch that makes it possible for players to duplicate gold currency, or in one case duplicate a trophy that could be sold for those envied dubloons.

The first time a gold-duping bug like this reared its head, the developers knew they had to act fast. A flood of new money could wreck the already temperamental economy. Imagine if everyone in the US suddenly knew how to counterfeit perfect dollar bills with a few mouse clicks. What would happen to the price of milk?

"We had alarms going off informing us," says Lane, "and then it was backed up by players letting us know via forums, Reddit, etc... My personal reaction was frustration. We want to focus on gameplay and improving the experience, so when we have bugs, exploits, and things like that it detracts from what we really want to be doing."

The devs shut down wealth transfers and rooted out offending players with bans. The markets didn't get swamped with illegitimate gold coins. A similar bug would rear its head twice more, and other problems would later threaten the economy but at least rampant inflation wouldn't be one of them. .

But it's not just bugs that can disrupt the circulation of cash, the developers quickly realized. In the same update that introduced the magical Void Gauntlet and its purple blasts of arcane destruction, players noted a more mundane change:

"Reduced the quantity of honey gained from apiaries by 50% and the amount of milk from cows by 65%," reads one fix on a long list. "The bees and cows are happy about this change."

This is the microscopic level at which MMO developers have long had to manipulate their worlds. New World is no different. Tiny changes like this not only control the volume of certain items in the world, says Lane, but are also designed to nudge players towards the wilderness, instead of hanging out in town, milking Bessie all day.

"Milk and honey are very versatile cooking ingredients, and the abundance and easy accessibility of them was unbalancing the need to pursue hunting, harvesting, and [finding] provisions chests in the world… For example, when players come across a tree covered in honeycombs, it should be an exciting harvesting moment, and that was not having the desired impact."

The free-ish market

Even with subtle changes beneficial to Bessie's udders, Lane admits the economy did not get "where we’d like it to be", particularly for high-level players who reach the endgame. The studio is considering other tweaks. They might make salvaging items more profitable, for example (this is when you get a few pennies for breaking down or "salvaging" materials from tools, armor or weapons). They're also aiming to make it "more accessible" to buy a house in one of the land's many townships, among other adjustments.

"This is a very delicate balance. [W]e’re continuously monitoring and looking for ways to improve to keep the economy competitive and avoiding massive inflation."

Economics is a dry topic. But two things are as unavoidable in New World as they are in our own: death and taxes. Even if you do buy that one-floor bungalow in the corner of Everfell village, you'll have to pay tax on it, cash that goes straight to whatever player-run gang controls the village. Considering the complaints of some players and their growing discontent for this fiefdom of levies and fees, it's tempting to think of New World as an experimental economic realm where Jeff Bezos can propagate the idea that all tax is bad, actually. This is a video game funded by Amazon, after all.

"That is not our intention," Lane says. "We just want to make a fun game that evolves based on our players’ actions…The tax is in place to create a connection and some friction with our factions and owning companies as well…"

In other words, the taxes are there to encourage the appearance of player governors with punitive Prince John ideas, and rowdy groups of Merry Men.

"Players, especially home owners, who feel gouged can band together and overthrow them via wars," says the director.

The Robin Hoods of this MMO have yet to appear in any charismatic form. But the Prince Johns have admittedly turned up, with a few of the more devious governors embezzling gold and running off to start life afresh on new servers. It's these player-made moments that Lane looks most fondly on as successes.

"One of my favorite experiences was walking into a tavern in Windsward and there was someone standing on a table singing (through VOIP) while others sat around watching and it was just cool.

"Thankfully, he had a good voice."

Listening through the noise

This, along with watching PvP ambushes unfold in real-time, have been highlights for the director of the studio. Yet they've come amid a flood of understandable complaints. Following the explosion of interest two months ago, New World's player numbers have dropped and leveled out at daily peaks of about 130,000, at least according to Steam Player Count (never a perfect tool, please note). It remains one of the most-played games on Steam, even if those numbers don't match the first spasms of hype.

"All MMOs experience a drop off after the initial surge," says Lane. "I think there are many reasons that happens, and we brought some of it on ourselves by introducing bugs into the environment. We are improving daily… and if we continue to do that I believe many player[s] will come back."

In the short term, that means fixes. In the long-term, the studio will be "growing Aeternum not only in size, but in variety and activities". Boar-killers and PvP death-dealers will be equally glad to learn new weapons are on the way. Though when asked what those will be, Lane holds the line.

"Marketing would kill me… I’d hate to make a great blunder and give out the wrong details on upcoming weapons so we’ll have to wait a bit."

Making an MMO is one of the more perilous projects a studio can undertake. Few have lasted as long as World of Warcraft or Eve Online, the weathered veterans of a notoriously difficult and occasionally profitable genre. If anyone has an insight into just how tough it can be, it's Lane and the rest of Amazon Games.

"If I could do it over again, knowing what I know now… I would find more ways to test for and protect against these hard-to-find but game-damaging issues."

And even then, if you don't squash all the bugs in time, the players will let you know.

"There can be a lot of noise," says Lane.

The solution, it turns out, is a lot like walking into that tavern in Windsward and listening as a player clambers on top of a table to blow some hot air. You've got to stand there and watch.

"It sounds like it should be simple, but it is a complex situation… Simply listening isn't enough, we discovered, it's just as important to follow up, to talk to our players, bring them into the discussion to show them we are listening.

"We look at this journey as a marathon," says Lane, "and we are barely out of the starting blocks."

Brendan Caldwell is a freelance writer at IGN

As 2021 comes to a close, Amazon Prime Video has a few more holiday gifts for its subscribers, including the premiere of Being the Ricardos, a film that stars Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. This movie explores the legendary couple's relationship both in real life and on the screen.

If you are looking for something a bit more galactic, the sixth and final season of The Expanse will arrive on December 10 and will pick up in the middle of a solar system at war. There are a few other Amazon Original films arriving as well, including Michael Pearce's Encounter (starring Riz Ahmed), Tracy Oliver's Harlem, and Gloria Calderon Kellet's With Love.

Those in the mood for a bit of a walk down memory lane will be happy to know all 11 seasons of The Jeffersons will join Prime Video's library on December 1 alongside Sleepless in Seattle, Edward Scissorhands, Haloween 2 & 3, Little Women, and The Hunt for Red October.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a spotlight of some of the most notable December 2021 Prime Video releases followed by the full list:

December 1

Movies

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
• Alex Cross (2013)
• All Is Lost (2013)
• Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat (2003)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• End Of Days (1999)
• Guess Who (2005)
• Halloween II (1981)
• Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)
• Jennifer's Body (2009)
• Little Women (1994)
• Mistletoe Mixup (2021)
• Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)
• Pineapple Express (2008)
• Pineapple Express (Unrated) (2008)
• Ronin (1998)
• Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
• Soul Surfer (2011)
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)
• The Hunt For Red October (1990)
• The Proposal (2009)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
• The Thin Red Line (1998)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• The Waterboy (1998)
• Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (2008)
• Under The Tuscan Sun (2003)
• What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)
• White As Snow (2021)

Series

• A Discovery of Witches: Season 1 (AMC+)
• A House Divided: Season 1 (ALLBLK)
• Believe (2016) (UP Faith & Family)
• Bonanza: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)
• Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: Season 1 (HISTORY Vault)
• Christmas Everlasting (2020) (Hallmark Movies Now)
• Hallmark Drama’s Christmas Cookie Matchup: Season 1 (Hallmark Movies Now)
• Hostages: Season 1 (Topic)
• My Crazy Ex: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central)
• Roadkill: Season 1 (MotorTrend)
• Sanford: Seasons 1-2
• Sanford And Son: Seasons 1-6
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered for Christmas (2014) (Hallmark Movies Now)
• The Gulf: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
• The Jeffersons: Seasons 1-11
• The Perfect Wedding Match (2021) (UP Faith & Family)
• The Tom & Jerry Show: Season 1 (Boomerang)
• When Calls the Heart: Home for Christmas: Season 7 (Hallmark Movies Now)

December 3

Movies

• Joe Bell (2020)
• We Are X (2016)

Series

• Harlem - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 8

Series

• FC Bayern – Behind the Legend - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 9

Series

• The Ferragnez - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 10

Movies

• Encounter - Amazon Original Movie (2021)

Series

• LOL: Last One Laughing Mexico - Amazon Original Series: Season 3
• The Expanse - Amazon Original Series: Season 6

December 12

Movies

• A Christmas Star (2021)

December 16

Movies

• Theory Of Everything (2014)

December 17

Movies

• Boxing Day (2021)
• Christmas Is Cancelled (2021)

Series

• With Love - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 19

Movies

• Joy for Christmas (2021)

December 20

Movies

• Who You Think I Am (2021)

December 21

Movies

• Being The Ricardos - Amazon Original Movie (2021)

December 23

Specials

• Yearly Departed - Amazon Original Special (2021)

December 31

Movies

• Lady Of The Manor (2021)
• Time Is Up (2021)

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

As 2021 comes to a close, Amazon Prime Video has a few more holiday gifts for its subscribers, including the premiere of Being the Ricardos, a film that stars Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. This movie explores the legendary couple's relationship both in real life and on the screen.

If you are looking for something a bit more galactic, the sixth and final season of The Expanse will arrive on December 10 and will pick up in the middle of a solar system at war. There are a few other Amazon Original films arriving as well, including Michael Pearce's Encounter (starring Riz Ahmed), Tracy Oliver's Harlem, and Gloria Calderon Kellet's With Love.

Those in the mood for a bit of a walk down memory lane will be happy to know all 11 seasons of The Jeffersons will join Prime Video's library on December 1 alongside Sleepless in Seattle, Edward Scissorhands, Haloween 2 & 3, Little Women, and The Hunt for Red October.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a spotlight of some of the most notable December 2021 Prime Video releases followed by the full list:

December 1

Movies

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
• Alex Cross (2013)
• All Is Lost (2013)
• Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat (2003)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• End Of Days (1999)
• Guess Who (2005)
• Halloween II (1981)
• Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)
• Jennifer's Body (2009)
• Little Women (1994)
• Mistletoe Mixup (2021)
• Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)
• Pineapple Express (2008)
• Pineapple Express (Unrated) (2008)
• Ronin (1998)
• Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
• Soul Surfer (2011)
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)
• The Hunt For Red October (1990)
• The Proposal (2009)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
• The Thin Red Line (1998)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• The Waterboy (1998)
• Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (2008)
• Under The Tuscan Sun (2003)
• What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)
• White As Snow (2021)

Series

• A Discovery of Witches: Season 1 (AMC+)
• A House Divided: Season 1 (ALLBLK)
• Believe (2016) (UP Faith & Family)
• Bonanza: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)
• Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: Season 1 (HISTORY Vault)
• Christmas Everlasting (2020) (Hallmark Movies Now)
• Hallmark Drama’s Christmas Cookie Matchup: Season 1 (Hallmark Movies Now)
• Hostages: Season 1 (Topic)
• My Crazy Ex: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central)
• Roadkill: Season 1 (MotorTrend)
• Sanford: Seasons 1-2
• Sanford And Son: Seasons 1-6
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered for Christmas (2014) (Hallmark Movies Now)
• The Gulf: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
• The Jeffersons: Seasons 1-11
• The Perfect Wedding Match (2021) (UP Faith & Family)
• The Tom & Jerry Show: Season 1 (Boomerang)
• When Calls the Heart: Home for Christmas: Season 7 (Hallmark Movies Now)

December 3

Movies

• Joe Bell (2020)
• We Are X (2016)

Series

• Harlem - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 8

Series

• FC Bayern – Behind the Legend - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 9

Series

• The Ferragnez - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 10

Movies

• Encounter - Amazon Original Movie (2021)

Series

• LOL: Last One Laughing Mexico - Amazon Original Series: Season 3
• The Expanse - Amazon Original Series: Season 6

December 12

Movies

• A Christmas Star (2021)

December 16

Movies

• Theory Of Everything (2014)

December 17

Movies

• Boxing Day (2021)
• Christmas Is Cancelled (2021)

Series

• With Love - Amazon Original Series: Season 1

December 19

Movies

• Joy for Christmas (2021)

December 20

Movies

• Who You Think I Am (2021)

December 21

Movies

• Being The Ricardos - Amazon Original Movie (2021)

December 23

Specials

• Yearly Departed - Amazon Original Special (2021)

December 31

Movies

• Lady Of The Manor (2021)
• Time Is Up (2021)

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing IGN's Game of the Year AND the Daemie Awards. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing IGN's Game of the Year AND the Daemie Awards. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

We already knew that Valve had to delay the Steam Deck, its handheld gaming PC, from December 2021 into February 2022 due to the ongoing chip shortage. Thankfully, that appears to be the only delay for the product before its release date, as Valve confirmed the Steam Deck will still make its new release date with no further delays.

In a recent interview with PCGamer, Valve designer Greg Coomer confirmed that the company will not have to delay the Steam Deck's release, with the first shipments still on track for a February 2022 release. "We're still bummed that we had to move from end of this year to beginning of next. But yeah, all the signs are pointing to us being able to ship in February," Coomer told PCGamer.

Despite the February 2022 release confirmed for the Steam Deck, many people who reserved a unit will not receive theirs until later in the year as well saw earlier this year when reservations when up in July. "It's a real product launch, so many thousands of people right away are going to receive Decks as soon as we're able to ship them," Coomer told PCGamer. "But even talking about thousands would be quite low compared to the volumes we're shooting for in the first few months."

The Steam Deck is one of many gaming handhelds negatively impacted by the chip shortage. The Playdate, a quirky little gaming handheld, was also delayed into 2022. While the Analogue Pocket was also negatively impacted by the chip shortage, it did meet its 2021 release date. Though new orders won't ship until next year and the device increased its price by $20.

For more on the Steam Deck, check out the packaging included with every unit. As well as our hands-on preview.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

We already knew that Valve had to delay the Steam Deck, its handheld gaming PC, from December 2021 into February 2022 due to the ongoing chip shortage. Thankfully, that appears to be the only delay for the product before its release date, as Valve confirmed the Steam Deck will still make its new release date with no further delays.

In a recent interview with PCGamer, Valve designer Greg Coomer confirmed that the company will not have to delay the Steam Deck's release, with the first shipments still on track for a February 2022 release. "We're still bummed that we had to move from end of this year to beginning of next. But yeah, all the signs are pointing to us being able to ship in February," Coomer told PCGamer.

Despite the February 2022 release confirmed for the Steam Deck, many people who reserved a unit will not receive theirs until later in the year as well saw earlier this year when reservations when up in July. "It's a real product launch, so many thousands of people right away are going to receive Decks as soon as we're able to ship them," Coomer told PCGamer. "But even talking about thousands would be quite low compared to the volumes we're shooting for in the first few months."

The Steam Deck is one of many gaming handhelds negatively impacted by the chip shortage. The Playdate, a quirky little gaming handheld, was also delayed into 2022. While the Analogue Pocket was also negatively impacted by the chip shortage, it did meet its 2021 release date. Though new orders won't ship until next year and the device increased its price by $20.

For more on the Steam Deck, check out the packaging included with every unit. As well as our hands-on preview.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.