Does New World have controller support?

If you have been wondering if you can use a controller in New World, you are in the right place!

New World, Amazon's highly ambitious MMO inspired with the age of discovery, has just entered its final closed beta ahead of the release, and the game has already peaked at 190,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it the third most played game at the time of writing, behind only CS:GO and Dota 2.

There's no doubt that there's a huge interest in the game, as players are hungry for a fresh high-quality MMO experience, especially at the time when many are disappointed with the genre's behemoth, World of Warcraft.

The world of the game seems intriguing, and the system is complex and engaging, with players battling for territory and expansion of their factions, while participating in the development of towns and budling new settlements from scratch.

The game is currently only available for PC players via Steam, but many players think that New World would be great to be played with a gamepad, even on PC.

Is there support for controllers in New World? Let's check out what we know.

How to play New World with a controller

Initially, the game's developers Amazon Games stated that the game will offer controller support at launch, as can be seen in a tweet below, from 24th March 2021.

Controller support is planned for launch. Make sure you check out our website for more information on New World: https://t.co/r5oaKke89L

— New World (@playnewworld) March 24, 2021

Unfortunately, it seems that something has changed since then, as controllers currently won't work during the closed beta phase, just a month and a half before the full release of New World.

• Read more: How to find petal caps in New World

Players are reporting that their controllers won't work, and developers have now confirmed that there won't be "full support" at launch.

"New World will not fully support controllers at launch, however, all of the game’s inputs are re-bindable and are compatible with most access control devices," devs wrote.

However, you can still bypass this non-native support by making a custom controller configuration profile in Steam, via the "Big Picture" mode.

• Plug your controller into your PC
• Open Steam
• Click on the "Steam" button (upper left corner)
• Select "Settings"
• Select "Controller"
• Go to "General Controller Settings"
• Select your controller 
• Make your custom controller configuration and saved it

And that's it! Now when you want to play the game, switch to Steam's "Big Picture" mode and Steam should force controller controls in New World.

Keep in mind that since there's no native support, some things will undoubtedly not work properly (or at all), but if you absolutely want to play with a controller, this is your best shot. It won't be perfect, but it will work.

Alternatively, you can try some of these other software solutions to set up your controller for New World:

• J2K
• MotioninJoy
• Joystick 2 Mouse

For both Steam and alternative options you will need to spend some time and effort in order for things to work, but since there are no other solutions, at the moment that's simply the best option.

• Read more: Is New World pay to win? Amazon reveals microtransactions details

Hopefully, Amazon Games will introduce full controller support in the months following the launch.