The never-ending carousel of game industry layoffs continues once again as Amazon announced its cutting more than 14,000 jobs across the entire company, with specific reductions happening at Amazon Games and its in-house MMO, New World.
As part of a general shift in strategy, the company seems to be pivoting entirely away from its heavy focus on live service MMO games over the last several years towards a more casual, family-focused angle led by its revamped Amazon Luna cloud platform, in addition to focusing more on AI technologies.
Naturally, this doesn’t bode well for New World: Aeternum, the latest version of its homegrown MMO IP that hit consoles and relaunched on PC just a year ago. It remains to be seen what will happen with the in-development Lords of the Rings MMO and what the future holds for Amazon-published titles such as Lost Ark and the English version of Throne & Liberty.
The End of the Road for New World
As of today, no new content updates are planned, the most recent Season 10 and Nighthaven Updates from October 2025, will be the final releases, and servers are intended to remain active only through 2026, but not beyond. It does not seem like Amazon plans to offer refunds in anyway and, on the contrary, will continue to sell the game and offer microtransactions.
Presumably, it’s over for New World. Here is the full statement from the game’s update page:
“As New World recognizes its fourth anniversary since launching on PC, we reflect on an incredible journey shaped by our dedicated player community. Your feedback and passion have been instrumental in evolving Aeternum into the world it is today, and our team is deeply grateful for this shared adventure. After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we’ve reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates.
The recently launched Season 10 and Nighthaven update will serve as the final content release for New World on PC and consoles. It is only after much consideration that we’ve reached this decision. To thank you, the New World community, for your support over the years, we have made the Nighthaven release available to you for free. To ensure all New World players can experience this content, we also made Rise of the Angry Earth free for all PC players.
In the coming months, we will provide more details on what to expect and other essential information. Rest assured, our intention is to keep servers operating through 2026, allowing our community time to continue their adventures in Aeternum. Additionally, New World: Aeternum will still be downloadable for PlayStation Plus members (Extra and Premium).
Players of Aeternum: Your dedication and enthusiasm have made this New World adventure an unforgettable journey. We’re deeply grateful for every moment you’ve spent helping build this extraordinary world alongside us. It has been an honor to share Aeternum with you, thank you for helping make this game something truly special.”
Making an MMO game is very difficult and creating an entire IP from scratch, in-house, to build an MMO upon is even harder. The fact that not even Amazon could find a way to do it successfully after half a decade of trying from various angles and avenues is certainly telling. New World had a huge launch, then it faded away into the background for a long while, before being resurrected a year ago.
It should be said that recent sentiment and popularity for New World was pointing towards the game stabilizing and finding a strong core audience. Updates over the last year have all been well-received, but apparently it wasn’t enough.
