I imagine the biggest question people who’ve put hundreds or thousands of hours into Amazon’s MMO New World have right now is: are all my efforts about to be wiped? Is the game about to go offline, and close?
The concern, remember, comes from a report aired yesterday that Amazon is gutting its games business.
Amazon has now addressed these questions and the top-line takeaway is ongoing New World development will cease. The game is in trouble. But will it close? The answer to that is hazier.
As it stands, Amazon won’t guarantee the game’s life beyond 2026, but it has promised to give you six months notice before turning anything off. Here are the pertinent questions and answers from the New World website.
“Are you sunsetting the game?
“No, not at this time. While New World will not be receiving new content updates, servers will be live through 2026.
Advertisement“How long will I be able to play New World: Aeternum?
Advertisement“We will provide more details on what to expect in the coming months. We will provide a minimum of six months’ notice before making any changes that impact your ability to play New World: Aeternum.”
Regarding ongoing development: there simply won’t be any. Season 10 and the recent Nighthaven update will be the last updates released for the game, and by way of thanking you for your support over the years, they will be made free. The Rise of the Angry Earth update will also be made free but only for PC players. Holiday events in the game will also cease.
“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,” wrote the New World team by way of an explanation.
“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.
“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.”
New World launched in 2021 and, for a while, caused a stir. Its blend of faction versus faction PvP warfare, territorial warring, and skill-focused gameplay made it popular. But it has since fallen out of relevance, landing us, presumably, where we are now.
The game’s potential server-closures stand in stark contrast to the fleet of decades-old MMOs that rumble on elsewhere in the industry, both colossal ones like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14, and smaller ones such as The Lord of the Rings Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic, and even EverQuest 2. They are the sorts of games you make considerable time investments in, living as you do in their virtual worlds, and I imagine the prospect of losing all of that investment now is a very harsh – and disappointing and trust breaking – reality to face.