New World was featured during Gamescom 2021's opening night. This announcement brought a new trailer and a few surprises worth talking about!Open Beta WeekendThe first thing that was announced and discussed was the upcoming Open Beta for New World. This Open Beta starts a 7AM PT on September 9th, and end 12AM PT on September 12th. This is a true open beta, which does not require purchase to participate. Although it’s a short time, it’s a good chance to try the game if you’re still on the fence with picking it up.For the Developers, this Open Beta also serves and additional purpose. By being an open and public Beta, this gives them a good chance to make sure their severs are prepared the best they can be for launch day. This was also stated on their news post for the Open Beta.Is the Open Beta server capacity indicative of launch server capacity?Open Beta is an important test for our server infrastructure and will feature a higher server capacity than the Closed Beta, but will not represent the full server capacity available at launch. Players may experience queue times during the Open Beta test.For those of you worried that it’s just going to be the CBT be shorter, they have indicated some of the changes they’ve been working are being implemented. At the very least, they’ve directly said there will be a post on the forums when the beta goes live that will list all the changes between Closed Beta and Open Beta. So there are some changes, but not concrete as to what to expect.How to Participate in the Open BetaThis Open Beta is using Steam’s Playtest feature, so just like CBT, A Steam account is required. All that is required is that you signup for the Playtest when it becomes available, via New World’s Store page on Steam.Open Beta will begin on September 9 at 7:00AM PT (2:00PM UTC) and continue until September 12 at 11:59PM PT (6:59AM UTC). Interested players will be able to request access beginning on September 8 at 7:00AM PT (2:00PM UTC).This means that starting 24 hours before the Open beta period, you’ll likely be able to request access and begin pre-loading the game for the beta.Verdant Trapper SkinIf you managed to catch the Gamescom presentation and watched at least 15 minutes of Gamescom, you could earn the Verdant Trapper Skin as shown below.While not a particularly impressive skin, those that were able to pick it up will be able to show off this unique skin come launch. Much like the Golden Rage skin from watch streams during Beta, it’s unknown at this time if this skin will ever be made available at a later date or not.Post-Launch ContentThere was a short discussion during the interview that was done after the airing of the Trailer at Gamescom. It opened with a short bit announcing the Open Beta, then the other big question that was asked:What are the plans for Post-Launch Content?To this, we were given a couple short answers. They want to add more supernatural weapons and More group PvE Content (Like Expeditions).They said they didn’t want to talk specific of what was going to be added, however they heavily teased by flashing a couple images of a new weapon.Many believe that this weapon is the Void Gauntlet, which has been datamined previously. Which is very likely. They’ve shown the above Concept Art, which looks phenomenal. It appear the Void element radiates from the ring, rather than the entire gauntlet itself.It’s also entirely possible that the Concept Art may be a different variation of the weapon, or possibly an entirely different one that shares a similar design. Though it’s very unlikely for it to be a second, nearly identical weapon, it seems like such a drastic difference in design to entirely overlook. The way the ring is being grasped is also different. It just gives off the vibe of possibly being another Nature weapon, this one being more offensively focused.They also showed off some models, which are final in-game assets or at lest very close to it. The shift in appearance from fur and bone to a more metal design is a nice choice. Though I think refining the conceptual idea would have make it stand apart from the Ice Gauntlet more, since the Ice Gauntlet is also primarily metal.Having a Magic Weapon that isn’t purely Wood/Metal and instead makes use of Leather would be an interesting concept, for both design and crafting diversity. A Leather-based magic weapon would still require motes, but Leather is much more plentiful for the early days of crafting.While more Party-based or Expedition content was mentioned, nothing specifically was teased. I really hope they can make more Expeditions for all levels, not just 60. As it stands right now, there’s one dungeon per 10 levels, starting at around 25; while there’s at least three at or very near 60.We at SSEGold.com have made it our business to make your entry into the New World as easy and smooth as possible. We have New World Coins Guides, New World Reviews, and New World Edition Guides ready for you. A large number of guides are currently in production and will be waiting for you on the day of release to give you the best possible start.