With news of massive layoffs coming to parts of Amazon’s corporate business, the company has also turned its baleful gaze towards its gaming division and announced that their MMORPG New World will no longer receive content updates after the recently released Season 10: Nighthaven content has run its course.
This isn’t an end of service notice just yet, with the companion FAQ stating that servers will be live through 2026 at least, and they will provide at least six months’ notice of a server shutdown. Because of that, and with the Nighthaven seasonal content still planned to roll out gradually, the New World is remaining on sale and part of the PS Plus library, and microtransaction currency will still be available, though the appeal of the game and player base will no doubt dwindle through the coming months.
We also await news of Amazon Game Studios’ future with dread….
New World arrived with a huge bang in 2021, as Amazon brought its fantasy colonialist MMORPG to PC, racing to a huge peak of over 900,000 concurrent players that pushed the servers beyond the limit. After such a strong start, the playerbase (via SteamDB) dwindled through early 2022, but enjoyed a new peak of over 130,000 for the first yearly expansion. Perhaps a lot of expectation was put internally on the potential of the console port, which arrived with a major game overhaul last September in the form of New World: Aeternum, but on PC at least, the game has spent much of this year with daily peak player counts below 10,000, jumping up to 50,000 with the new Nighthaven update. That’s roughly comparable with a Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls: Online, so could easily have been sustainable depending on development expenditure, but it’s half of where Destiny 2 commonly is right now, and that game is widely regarded as being in serious trouble.
The announcement reads:
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.
Head here for the full FAQ of the game’s future.
