Amazon’s colonial fantasy MMO New World (latterly rebranded New World: Aeternum) is no longer available for purchase as of yesterday, and will be taken offline for good from 31st July 2027, the publishers have announced. The news follows the release of the game’s final major update back in October, amid mass layoffs at Amazon.
Alongside the similarly ill-fated Crucible and Breakaway, New World was once a key plank of Amazon’s push to become a big mover in the games industry – amplifying its existing success as a provider of software and web services, and luring yet more innocent souls into the toxic swamp of the Amazon Prime subscription business. Announced in 2016, it underwent several delays amid reports of corporate dysfunction in Amazon’s embryonic studio empire, eventually launching out of beta in 2021, with a storyline conclusion landing in 2022.
Alice Bee (RPS in peace) was mildly enthused by New World at launch, calling the game “a fresh, swashbuckling MMO that’s still very grindy early on”. Ed Thorn (also RPS in peace) liked the emphasis on crafting. It had over 700,000 players on Steam on release day. But then it proceeded to lose over 90% of its players in a matter of months.
I never played New World myself, mostly because I try to avoid anything associated with Amazon, but it never struck me as particularly fascinating from afar – familiar combat and quest mechanics with some convoluted magic settler politics. Still, I’m sorry for any New World developers who’ve lost their jobs as a result of this latest “sunsetting”. In general, I’ll take a lacklustre MMO over Jeff Bezos’s desire to move humans into giant, Amazon-run space stations.
The game’s live service will continue to operate before the servers are pulled, with recurring world bosses and bonus weeks. The devs will also keep an eye out for bugs and performance issues. But there will be no more content additions or server merges. You’ll be able to buy in-game currencies such as Marks of Fortune until July 20, 2026 – beware that Amazon are not offering refunds for such purchases.
“We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion,” the devs write on their official site. “We are grateful for the time spent crafting the world of Aeternum with you. Together we built something special. While we are saddened to say goodbye, we’re honored that we were able to share so much with the community.”
Any New World veterans reading? I’d like to read some reminiscing.
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