Amazon Games’ upcoming MMO New World has been delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a blog post, the developers revealed that the game would be delayed to 25 August 2020, while the closed beta will be launched sometime in July 2020.

“Like most of you, our entire team has been sequestered as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic,” they wrote. “While we are still making great progress, developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges.

“We want to make sure that we have the time needed to make New World the very best it can be for our players. As a result, we’ve chosen to delay the game’s release in order to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.”

The developers also posted an article detailing the game’s Invasions, where defenders have to protect a Territory’s Fort from waves of Corrupted, New World‘s AI enemies. These are restricted to players who are Level 50 or higher. The Territory’s Governor can pick 10 heroes to participate in the Invasion the day before, while another 40 slots will be filled by randomly-selected players who signed up.

Players will be able to use Battle Tokens to purchase items like ammunition, potions, and incendiary mines in a preparation period, and earn more from actions like killing or healing. The Corrupted will appear from portals after this period, with a total of eight waves.

There are at least eight types of enemies, from lowly but numerous Grunts and turret-suppressing Snipers to suicidal Bombers and Brutes that focus on tearing down defenses. There will also be Bosses with varying behaviour, with some focusing on attacking players while others provide buffs to their allies.

Players who helped in the battle will be rewarded with XP, in-game currency, and loot regardless of the outcome, but a defeat will cause the Territory to downgrade. Winning means that the Corrupted will retreat and prepare for another Invasion.

There’s no video preview of the Invasions, sadly, but I quite like the look of New World’s real-time action-RPG-like combat, which you can check out above. There’ll also be a PvP element, though the community Q&A video on PvP was heavily disliked, which doesn’t inspire confidence.

New World joins the ranks of games like The Last of Us Part 2,  Iron Man VR and the Sniper Elite board game in being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, remains on track for its September release.