Players won’t be able to give each other gold in New World, effectively shutting down the game’s economy, due to a bug that duplicates the game’s main currency. The shutdown was put in place after Amazon Game Studios was made aware of the exploit, and it extends to all player-to-player, guild treasury, and trading post transactions.
While currency plays a large part in just about every MMO out there, the shutdown is especially alarming for New World. Making money is a huge part of the game that’s impacted by which faction players are part of and what taxes they have to pay when trading. Players can even form companies, or guilds, which regulate taxes in settlements, or can simply give players a larger name as they dole out their wares.
However, with trade effectively locked down, the flow of gold to both companies and players will drop off dramatically. According to a statement from Amazon Game Studios posted on the New Worlds forum, players will be able to resume trade “once the gold duplication exploit has been investigated and we are ready.” Players who have abused the exploit are also in the developer’s sights, with Amazon Game Studios promising that they will be “actioned against.”
New World‘s gold duplication bug is the latest in the game’s long list of problems. When it launched in October, players struggled to get into servers, with Amazon Game Studios even preventing players from making new characters for a time. The game also had a nasty reputation for bricking expensive graphics cards while it was in beta.