The game's first release date was May 2020, then moved to August 2020 and then moved to Spring 2021, this is the 3rd delay.
https://www.newworld.com/en-us/news/articles/new-world-developer-update
https://www.newworld.com/en-us/news/articles/new-world-developer-update
We've been hard at work on compelling end-game features we believe are important to include at launch. These features won't be ready for the Spring timeframe that we had communicated. With that in mind, we will release New World on August 31, 2021. With this extra time we'll be able to add these substantial improvements while polishing and fine tuning the whole game before we open Aeternum's shores to the world.
We'll continue our Alpha in the months to come and expand testing by standing up EU servers on March 30, 2021. Our Closed Beta will begin on July 20, 2021. If you've pre-ordered New World, you'll have access to the Closed Beta Test.