Amazon Games’ MMORPG New World won’t see any major content releases in February, with the team instead looking to focus on delivering as many bug fixes as possible.

The news comes via a New World developer update video, in which different members of the development team discuss a variety of topics, ranging from soon-to-be-added systems like mutators to various technical issues the team is looking to address.

Bug fixes are currently a big priority for Amazon, which is why the game’s February update won’t include any new content.

“February is just a bug fix month,” senior producer Katy Kaszynski said. “There’s no major content that is coming with the February release. We have some things that we are focusing on for that to make sure we get a good amount of fixes in and we make a real difference for the players that have been asking for things for a long time.”

New World has been crippled on multiple occasions due to various bugs, including multiple instances of gold and item duplication exploits that led to Amazon temporarily disabling the game’s entire economy. While most of those issues have been fixed quickly once discovered, there are still a number of issues that are priorities for the team. In addition to fixes for various bugged quests, missing ingredients, and other issues, the team is also looking to improve server desync issues and making weapon swapping more reliable.

Part of ironing out many of the game’s technical issues means giving players more time on the game’s public test realm–at least two and a half weeks–to test out potential bug fixes and new features, which in turn gives the team more time to react to player feedback.

“We learned the first PTR, when we gave ourselves like seven days, we were like ‘We’ll just do scale testing, we’ll check to make sure the servers can handle it, and then we are good,'” Kaszynski said. “What we found out is we were not good. We were the opposite of good. Players felt like we lost their trust, we felt like we lost their trust, so we’ve been gaining it back since then and we want to continue to do that by providing the PTRs far enough in advance that we can listen to them, take their advice, find out what the biggest sticking points are and address those before things get released into the live game.”

The update also touches on Amazon’s plans to merge various low population New World servers, plans that didn’t go as smoothly as planned. A housing persistence bug caused a delay in the process, but more merges are being planned in the near future. Once those merges are complete, characters will once again be able to transfer servers.

In terms of what players can expect in the long term, the dev update was light on details, but did reaffirm that a new weapon, the Blunderbuss, is in the works. Other details include the possibility of mutated expeditions coming to lower-level expeditions. The team also likes the idea of more small-scale PvP like matchmade arenas or more casual versions of activities like Invasions or War, though no concrete plans were discussed. More dev-playthrough videos will be coming soon as well. A previous video saw the dev team accepting the community’s challenge to complete the Myrkgard endgame zone, with some humorous results.

New World’s next update will add a new endgame system in the form of Mutated Expeditions, as well a way to raise the maximum gear score of items. The new content is currently being tested on the game’s PTR and is slated to officially release later this month.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic players will soon be able to confront iconic Warcraft villain Illidan Stormrage himself, with the game’s latest content update adding two new raids in the form of Black Temple and the Battle For Mount Hyjal.

The new raids are the star of the patch, but the two endgame encounters aren’t live just yet. As detailed by Blizzard, the new raids will actually unlock on January 27 alongside the Netherwing daily quest hub. The Netherwing quests eventually award one of the game’s cooler mounts–the Netherdrake–but the grind to reach exalted reputation is a long one.

Players will need to complete the necessary attunement questlines to access each new raid, which includes completing previous raids like Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Bosses from previous raids will now drop additional loot, which should make gearing up for the new content a little easier.

This new patch also ushers in the start of a PvP Arena season 3, and unlike the raids, it’s live now. New Arena gear will now be on sale, while gear from older seasons will be available at a discount.

Warlock players can take part in an optional new quest to unlock the Incubus pet, a male version of the game’s Succubus pet. The introduction of the Incubus comes as part of a wider initiative by the WoW development team to make Azeroth a more welcoming and inclusive place, with Blizzard having recently changed potentially problematic achievement names, dialogue, and other in-game content in the wake of multiple sexual harassment and lawsuit investigations at Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard in a nearly $70 billion deal. You can check out the full Burning Crusade patch notes below.

Burning Crusade Classic Patch 2.5.3 Notes

Content

The Black Temple

Defeat the Betrayer himself—Illidan Stormrage—atop the Black Temple.

Raid bosses: 9 (High Warlord Naj’entus, Supremus, Shade of Akama, Teron Gorefiend, Gurtogg Bloodboil, Reliquary of Souls, Mother Shahraz, The Illidari Council, Illidan Stormrage)Level: 70Location: The Black Temple, Shadowmoon Valley

Improve your standing with the Ashtongue Deathsworn to earn rewards from Okuno inside the Black Temple.

The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Preserve the outcome of the pivotal Battle for Mount Hyjal and ensure the demon Archimonde meets his fate.

Raid bosses: 5 (Rage Winterchill, Anetheron, Kaz’rogal, Azgalor, Archimonde)Level: 70Location: Caverns of Time, Tanaris

Improve your standing with the Scale of the Sands to earn rewards from Indormi in the Caverns of time.

Raid Attunements

Those who wish to brave the two new raid instances must complete the required attunement quests first. The required quests must be completed once per character. All new raid content will unlock at 3:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, January 27.

Epic Gems

Epic gem Jewelcrating Designs will be available from Indormi in the Caverns of Time. Epic gems can be obtained from Battle for Mount Hyjal through mining (requires 375 mining skill), and as rare drops from Black Temple.

Netherwing Daily Quests

Earn Netherwing reputation through daily quests in Shadowmoon Valley. Collect Netherwing eggs to speed up reputation gains. Epic Netherdrake mounts will be available to players that reach Exalted reputation (requires Artisan Riding skill).

Burning Crusade Arena Season 3

The week of January 18, with the weekly reset in each region, Arena Season 3 has begun. The matchmaker has been adjusted to increase the range of possible opponents. This will help match players of different matchmaking levels more quickly. As before, teams with similar ratings who queue at the same will be prioritized to match against each other.

Updates

Bosses in Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep now drop one additional class set token for a total of 3.Bosses in Magtheridon’s Lair and Gruul’s Lair now drop an additional loot token for a total of 3.The Lurker Below, Morogrim Tidewalker, A’lar, and High Astromancer Solarian have had their loot tables updated to their final state, which includes additional drops for each boss, and in some cases, new items.All dungeon bosses now have a chance to drop epic gems in Heroic difficulty.New Darkmoon cards now have a chance to drop.Warlocks can now learn to summon an Incubus by completing a new questline: In Undercity, speak to Carendin Halgar.In Orgrimmar, speak to Gan’rul Bloodeye.In Stormwind, speak to Gakin the Darkbinder.The Consortium vendor now sells: Formula: Enchant Weapon – Major Striking.The Honor Hold and Thrallmar vendor now sells: Pattern: Netherscale Ammo Pouch.The Lower City vendor now sells: Enchant Ring – Stats and Pattern: Quiver of a Thousand Feathers.Mind Quickening Gem is no longer usable in Arenas. The trinket is unchanged in all other areas of play.The following items are no longer usable inside Arenas: Nigh-Invulnerability BeltNet-o-Matic ProjectorDazzling LongswordSilent FangSkull of Impending Doom

User Interface

You can now select multiple activities when searching for groups in the Looking for More UI.After listing your group in the Looking for Group UI, the UI will now automatically search for other groups interested in the same activities.In the Looking for Group UI, the entire dropdown body can now be clicked to open the dropdown.You may now report players searched via /who using the right-click menu.Added a more descriptive error message when attempting to transfer a character who is an Arena team captain from one realm to another.Fixed an issue that caused Duels to end after 15 minutes.Added a “have materials” filter in the Profession UI.Fixed an issue that caused interface errors to appear when using the character Unstuck service.Fixed a bug where the player model in the character sheet could get stuck rotating when the player moves the mouse.

Bug Fixes

Made some improvements to player pathing during fear to reduce situations where players end up outside or under terrain.Fixed a bug that caused certain flight paths to incorrectly take players through mountains and other terrain.Fixed an issue where Alliance players who died in Ogri’la were teleported to the incorrect graveyard after releasing.Fixed a bug preventing dialogue options from working correctly in several quests that offer replacement quest items from the quest giver, such as “The Hawk’s Essence”.Fixed an issue that caused mounted footstep/hoof sounds to play at incorrect speeds for certain mounts.Fixed an incorrect tooltip for the Spell Reflection ability that the Coilfang Serpentguard in Serpentshrine Cavern cast on themselves that indicates that it reflects 4 spells when it actually reflects all spells for its duration.Resolved an issue where Renataki of the Thousand Blades’ Thousand Blades ability could register an unintentionally huge number of hits and cause performance issues. It’s meant to be a figurative Thousand Blades, not a literal thousand. Relax, Renataki.Fixed multiple issues with Succubus creature animations.Fixed multiple issues with Worgen creature animations.Fixed an issue that caused belts to sometimes vanish when equipping an unequipping items.Resolved an issue that caused human models to use the incorrect animations when slowed.Some tamable pets, such as Rip-Blade Ravager, will now correctly change colors randomly when they are resummoned by the Hunter. Developers’ note: This will only affect pets tamed after the launch of this patch.Fixed an issue where the Paladin Trainer Noellene in Eversong Woods doesn’t show up when tracking Class Trainers.The Gladiator’s Spellblade now displays the appropriate textures.Fixed an issue that caused Shaman weapon enhancements displayed their visual effects twice on player weapons.The Aurora Cowl item is no longer missing its model.Fixed an issue where Shadow Word: Death could damage the caster when a low-level target is killed by the spell.Fixed an issue where certain channeled auras, such as Mind Flay from Fel Eye Stalks, were not stacking correctly.Effects that increase damage taken from spells by a flat amount, such as Shadow Resonance, will now work correctly with stacking damage-over-time auras.Snakes created by Snake Trap will now correctly not trigger most “On Kill” procs. Developers’ note: Some “On Kill” effects, such as Spirit Tap, will still correctly be triggered by slaying the snakes.Fixed an issue that caused loot sparkles to not properly scale up in size for larger creatures. Now please – loot the hounds.Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

With only a few more weeks to go before it arrives, Sony has released a new trailer for Horizon Forbidden West. Unlike the other trailers that focused on tribes, hostile mechanical wildlife, and robots with impressive swimming skills, the latest trailer focuses on just what spurs Aloy to embark on a new adventure and the dangers that lie hidden in the sinister landscape of Forbidden West.

As detailed in the trailer above, a strange blight has begun sweeping across the world and killing off all life. Machines have begun to grow more aggressive towards humans, and the key to saving the world lies in the Forbidden West. Aloy will have to explore this unknown region, and in the process, she’ll encounter Regalla. Described as a warrior who “seeks to slaughter all those who have wronged her” and “will kill anyone who gets in her way,” Regalla is voiced by Angela Bassett and will battle Aloy throughout the course of the game.

Horizon Forbidden West

The real twist in the trailer though is that Horizon Zero Dawn’s nomadic researcher Sylens has returned, and is pulling several strings behind the scenes. Aloy won’t be alone in her quest though, as her allies Erend and Varl will lend her a hand from time to time. Other new faces include Tenakth tribe warrior Kotallo, the curious explorer Alva who hails from an unknown tribe, and the Utaru tribe’s Zo. Lastly, the trailer confirms that artificial intelligence GAIA will also return, while another new character by the name of Tilda will be brought to life by The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss.

Horizon Forbidden West launches on PS5 and PS4 on February 18, and even though an early and almost complete build of the game has leaked, Sony has managed to squash most spoilers so far that have cropped up on social media websites. Beyond the sequel, virtual reality fans can also look forward to Horizon Call of the Mountain when it eventually arrives on PlayStation VR2.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Despite a string of issues at launch, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition did “just great” for the company, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

He told CNBC that, while the compilation package had “a glitch in the beginning,” the teams resolved the issues and now “the title has done just great for the company.”

The GTA Trilogy was released in November in a state that fans were generally not happy about. Rockstar responded to the issues and released multiple patches, one of which included more than 100 fixes to improve performance and take aim at bugs.

Rockstar has not announced a specific sales number for the GTA Trilogy, but it was previously reported that if the game sold well, Rockstar might release a remaster of the original Red Dead Redemption.

Zelnick also spoke briefly about how Take-Two is making changes to its model to have steadier results when it comes to revenue. In the past, Take-Two’s revenue would spike around the launch of a big new game and then come back down to earth. But thanks in part to GTA Online and other titles that make up Take-Two’s “recurring revenue,” that’s less of an issue. And Take-Two is now even further diversified thanks to its planned acquisition of mobile game giant Zynga.

“Unquestionably, we expect our earnings to be less episodic,” Zelnick said. “This will give us a larger, more diversified financial and creative footprint. And we think that’ll benefit shareholders. We have an amazing pipeline going forward. Zynga has an incredible pipeline going forward. And together, we think we can do a whole lot more than what’s already been announced.”

Take-Two has said there is a “clear path” for releasing its console and PC games on mobile going forward thanks to its partnership with Zynga, but no new games have been announced yet.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Nintendo’s latest Pokemon game officially arrives on January 28, but with a few days left to go, it appears that some copies of Pokemon Legends: Arceus have broken the street date. Social media websites such as Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube have played host to gameplay content from the upcoming title, with Nintendo scrambling to plug any leaks.

According to Eurogamer, a seller based in New Jersey managed to get their hands on a cache of the games and auctioned them off on eBay for $75 each. Elsewhere, images of people holding boxed copies of the game have been posted online. If you’re trying to avoid spoilers, now might be a good time to start muting several keywords when you’re online.

The only leek that Nintendo approves of.

As for how physical editions of the game are managing to find their way out into the wild, the main culprits appear to be regular shops that are selling Pokemon Legends: Arceus early. Almost every major Pokemon game has been leaked early ahead of release over the years, although Nintendo and the Pokemon Company have become experienced in removing that content from the Internet with takedown notices. It’s super effective surveillance.

If you’re content to wait a few more days, then there’s plenty of content lined up ahead of the game’s launch. The last couple of weeks have seen several new videos for the game released, such as a deep dive on gameplay, a tour of the game’s Hisui region locale, and an introduction to the Diamond and Pearl clans that you’ll interact with.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News