Amazon’s New Hit Product Is a Video Game, Not a Robot
Astro, the tablet on wheels, may not have many buyers, but New World is already taking over the lives of gamers.
Not Amazon’s best product this week.
Photographer: AmazonAll the world has heard about and seen photos of Amazon.com Inc.’s $1,000 home robot. But that was not the company’s biggest product launch this week. Far more important, and carrying wider ramifications for Amazon’s business, is New World — the company’s first major video-game hit.
The technology giant quietly released this online role-playing game on Tuesday. To the surprise of many — including probably the company itself — New World is turning out to be an enormous success. On day one, it broke popularity records and reached more than 700,000 concurrent players, overwhelming Amazon’s servers. At this point, customers have to wait hours in line just to get into a session of New World.