While many were very excited when Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally arrived on PC after a year and a half from its original release date, it was quickly discovered that this port has some major problems that will hopefully be addressed in a future patch.

As reported by PC Gamer, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Graphics Settings list on PC is surprisingly bare and offers "no variable framerate option, no way to tweak anti-aliasing, toggle VSync, or control effects like motion blur." There is also no way to control resolution scaling to help balance image quality and performance.

Speaking of performance, there have also been reports of framerate drops and instability when simply moving the camera.

I never really do this, since I usually cover this in a video, but @oliemack is going to be on this when I am on holiday. But this is just one brief moment in the first 5 minutes of the game. Spinning the camera causes a sustained drop and then a big stutter. RTSS does not see it https://t.co/pvTAML3dEX pic.twitter.com/UgDWzO9Iav

— Alexander Battaglia (@Dachsjaeger) December 17, 2021

Digital Foundry's John Linneman and Alexander Battaglia noticed these issues, even when capturing using "an RTX3090 and 10900k at just 1080p." Linneman called it "a mess," saying "the smooth presentation was central to [FF7 Remake's] story telling and this version compromises it."

This was a bit of a surprise as other Square Enix PC ports, including Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3, all had far more options than Final Fantasy 7 Remake currently has.

There has been no word as of yet from Square Enix regarding these issues, but PCGamingWiki notes that "The game can drop fps from 120 to below 30 fps when texture settings are set to high on a GPU with 8GB of VRAM or less." While this very well may be a problem, it does not account for why Battaglia's 3090 - which has 24GB of VRAM - is still stuttering.

Fans are even more upset as Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PC is one of the first PC games to cost $70, a practice now seen in this new PS5 and Xbox Series X/S generation.

Hopefully, these issues are resolved, because Final Fantasy 7 Remake was considered by many, including IGN, to be a success in bringing FF7 to the modern era. In our review on PS4, we said that its "dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own."

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.

While many were very excited when Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally arrived on PC after a year and a half from its original release date, it was quickly discovered that this port has some major problems that will hopefully be addressed in a future patch.

As reported by PC Gamer, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Graphics Settings list on PC is surprisingly bare and offers "no variable framerate option, no way to tweak anti-aliasing, toggle VSync, or control effects like motion blur." There is also no way to control resolution scaling to help balance image quality and performance.

Speaking of performance, there have also been reports of framerate drops and instability when simply moving the camera.

I never really do this, since I usually cover this in a video, but @oliemack is going to be on this when I am on holiday. But this is just one brief moment in the first 5 minutes of the game. Spinning the camera causes a sustained drop and then a big stutter. RTSS does not see it https://t.co/pvTAML3dEX pic.twitter.com/UgDWzO9Iav

— Alexander Battaglia (@Dachsjaeger) December 17, 2021

Digital Foundry's John Linneman and Alexander Battaglia noticed these issues, even when capturing using "an RTX3090 and 10900k at just 1080p." Linneman called it "a mess," saying "the smooth presentation was central to [FF7 Remake's] story telling and this version compromises it."

This was a bit of a surprise as other Square Enix PC ports, including Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3, all had far more options than Final Fantasy 7 Remake currently has.

There has been no word as of yet from Square Enix regarding these issues, but PCGamingWiki notes that "The game can drop fps from 120 to below 30 fps when texture settings are set to high on a GPU with 8GB of VRAM or less." While this very well may be a problem, it does not account for why Battaglia's 3090 - which has 24GB of VRAM - is still stuttering.

Fans are even more upset as Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PC is one of the first PC games to cost $70, a practice now seen in this new PS5 and Xbox Series X/S generation.

Hopefully, these issues are resolved, because Final Fantasy 7 Remake was considered by many, including IGN, to be a success in bringing FF7 to the modern era. In our review on PS4, we said that its "dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own."

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: No Way Home has swung to a record-breaking $253 million domestic weekend box office debut, and it earned another $334.2 million internationally to claim a global total of $587.2 million.

As reported by THR, Spider-Man: No Way Home has secured the third-biggest domestic opening of all time, pandemic or otherwise, and the third-best global opening ever, not adjusted for inflation.

The latest Spidey film surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens' $247 million domestic opening, but failed to reach the heights of Avengers: Infinity War's $257 or Avengers: Endgame's $357 million.

No Way Home was also the first film in the COVID-19 era to earn over $100 million in its domestic debut. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was the closest before this film, as it earned $90 million during its launch.

Additionally, No Way Home has already grossed more than than the entire run of any other film during the pandemic era. Previously, Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had the highest run with $224.5 million.

“This weekend’s historic Spider-Man: No Way Home results, from all over the world and in the face of many challenges, reaffirm the unmatched cultural impact that exclusive theatrical films can have when they are made and marketed with vision and resolve," Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman said. "All of us at Sony Pictures, are deeply grateful to the fabulous talent, both in front of and behind the camera, that produced such a landmark film. Thanks to their brilliant work, this Christmas everyone can enjoy the big screen gift of 2021’s mightiest Super Hero —your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

Fans also flocked to IMAX theaters to see the latest MCU film, as No Way Home earned $36.2 million globally at IMAX, making it the sixth-best opening for that particular format.

No Way Home also performed considerably better than the impressive domestic weekend box office debuts of Spider-Man: Homecoming's $117 million and Spider-Man: Far From Home's $92 million.

In our Spider-Man: No Way Home review, we said that it "bounces from hilarious to hurt with ease as both the darkest and funniest MCU Spider-Man entry to date."

For more, check out our explainer of the ending and post-credits scenes, our 10 biggest WTF questions after leaving the theater, and just what No Way Home may mean for the future of Venom.

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: No Way Home has swung to a record-breaking $253 million domestic weekend box office debut, and it earned another $334.2 million internationally to claim a global total of $587.2 million.

As reported by THR, Spider-Man: No Way Home has secured the third-biggest domestic opening of all time, pandemic or otherwise, and the third-best global opening ever, not adjusted for inflation.

The latest Spidey film surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens' $247 million domestic opening, but failed to reach the heights of Avengers: Infinity War's $257 or Avengers: Endgame's $357 million.

No Way Home was also the first film in the COVID-19 era to earn over $100 million in its domestic debut. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was the closest before this film, as it earned $90 million during its launch.

Additionally, No Way Home has already grossed more than than the entire run of any other film during the pandemic era. Previously, Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had the highest run with $224.5 million.

Fans also flocked to IMAX theaters to see the latest MCU film, as No Way Home earned $36.2 million globally at IMAX, making it the sixth-best opening for that particular format.

No Way Home also performed considerably better than the impressive domestic weekend box office debuts of Spider-Man: Homecoming's $117 million and Spider-Man: Far From Home's $92 million.

In our Spider-Man: No Way Home review, we said that it "bounces from hilarious to hurt with ease as both the darkest and funniest MCU Spider-Man entry to date."

For more, check out our explainer of the ending and post-credits scenes, our 10 biggest WTF questions after leaving the theater, and just what No Way Home may mean for the future of Venom.

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: No Way Home star Willem Dafoe had one condition when it came to returning as Norman Osborn – he wanted to do the action scenes.

During an interview with Mulderville, the 66-year-old Spider-Man: No Way Home star revealed why he wanted to make sure he joined in with the action.

“To do this physical stuff was important to me,” he said. “One of the first things I said to Jon and Amy, basically when they pitched it to me, before there was even a script, was, 'Listen, I don't want to just pop in there as a cameo or just fill in in close-ups. I want to do the action because that's fun for me’.”

It sounds as though Dafoe, who played Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin in the 2002 Spider-Man movie alongside Tobey Maguire, had some doubts about picking up the iconic mask once more.

“I just was concerned about how contrived it was or whether it was just like a power cameo, a reference” he said. “I really was worried that I wouldn't have something to do.”

Ultimately, he was convinced to return. But Dafoe insisted on joining in with the action sequences and would not settle by just being the guy who stood on the side-lines.

“It's really impossible to add any integrity or any fun to the character if you don't participate in these things because all that action stuff informs your relationship to the characters and the story, and also it makes you earn your right to play the character.”

It’s certainly great to see Dafoe back in the role. And he’s not phoning it in, either – his performance is already winning over fans and critics alike.

Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. The film is directed by Jon Watts and based on a script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

Spider-Man: No Way Home opened in theaters in December 17, 2021.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Spider-Man: No Way Home star Willem Dafoe had one condition when it came to returning as Norman Osborn – he wanted to do the action scenes.

During an interview with Mulderville, the 66-year-old Spider-Man: No Way Home star revealed why he wanted to make sure he joined in with the action.

“To do this physical stuff was important to me,” he said. “One of the first things I said to Jon and Amy, basically when they pitched it to me, before there was even a script, was, 'Listen, I don't want to just pop in there as a cameo or just fill in in close-ups. I want to do the action because that's fun for me’.”

It sounds as though Dafoe, who played Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin in the 2002 Spider-Man movie alongside Tobey Maguire, had some doubts about picking up the iconic mask once more.

“I just was concerned about how contrived it was or whether it was just like a power cameo, a reference” he said. “I really was worried that I wouldn't have something to do.”

Ultimately, he was convinced to return. But Dafoe insisted on joining in with the action sequences and would not settle by just being the guy who stood on the side-lines.

“It's really impossible to add any integrity or any fun to the character if you don't participate in these things because all that action stuff informs your relationship to the characters and the story, and also it makes you earn your right to play the character.”

It’s certainly great to see Dafoe back in the role. And he’s not phoning it in, either – his performance is already winning over fans and critics alike.

Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. The film is directed by Jon Watts and based on a script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

Spider-Man: No Way Home opened in theaters in December 17, 2021.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

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