I hope that would be players realize that delaying the launch is a good thing (the decision was in conjunction with Smilegate RPG who have been adamant about a certain level of quality with localized versions of the game). Additionally, narrowing the gap with the Korean build is something they ought to strive for and include when possible.
Smilegate itself (in South Korea) has been subject to multiple labor related scandals over the years, and have been trying to clean their act up in that area (this includes reducing crunch time which translates into potential scheduling delays). The coronavirus pandemic (especially with the delta variant) is also having an impact regardless of whether or not many teams have been working remotely.
Amazon Games did address their lack of community engagement post closed technical alpha, and outlined what they are planning to do to rectify that. Ongoing engagement should never have been allowed to lapse the way it did since that is supposed to be part of ongoing marketing and PR.
As for the delay, the trolls are already out in force accusing Amazon Games of screwing up yet again, incompetence, or trying to prioritize New World. I will personally reserve judgement on the competence part after the closed beta is completed. And regarding this theory that it’s because of New World, people need to remember that they’ve been under a fairly strict contractual obligation to launch (originally) by Q4 2021 (part of Smilegate RPG’s delayed IPO pitch was due to its slow rollout outside of South Korea; especially the NA/EU market).
This delay was made in conjunction with Smilegate RPG (they’ve been over deliberate in taking their time, and that is borne out with how they launched in Russia and Japan first versus China which was supposed to originally follow South Korea; it was already known NA/EU would be more challenging because of the multiple language localization for the EU region; Smilegate RPG refused to rush an early announcement). If they were more concerned about getting their delayed IPO out of the way, Lost Ark would’ve long been launched in the west. So I’m actually impressed they are actually putting the game over the Korean stock market. That’s why I have no problems with this delay announcement.
