Amazon Games Scales Back New World MMO as Part of Major Division Cuts Amazon Games is ending new content development for its MMO New World Aeternum, a significant move that comes amid widespread layoffs within its video game division and across the broader company. The game, which first launched on PC in 2021 and arrived on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles last year, will not receive any updates beyond its recently released Season 10 and Nighthaven expansion. In a blog post, the company stated that after four years of updates and a major console release, it is no longer sustainable to create new content for the game. This decision marks a major shift for a title that experienced immense popularity, reaching a peak of 914,000 concurrent players on Steam at its launch and still maintaining a solid player base of nearly 50,000 concurrent players as recently as this past weekend. Despite the halt on new content, Amazon has assured players that the game is not shutting down immediately. The servers will remain operational through at least 2026, allowing the community to continue playing. The company has committed to providing a minimum of six months notice before any changes that would impact the ability to play. For the time being, New World will remain available for purchase, and the Nighthaven expansion is now free for all players. It will also stay accessible to PlayStation Plus subscribers on the Extra and Premium tiers. This wind-down is part of a larger strategic pivot for Amazon Games. According to reports, the company informed staff that it is scaling back work on big-budget games, particularly MMOs, which are expensive and time-intensive to develop. This pullback appears to extend to other internal projects. While Amazon did not officially comment, a former senior gameplay engineer suggested in a since-deleted LinkedIn post that a highly anticipated Lord of the Rings MMO in development was also canceled in the recent layoffs. The division will continue to support MMOs it publishes but does not develop internally, such as Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark. The new focus for Amazon Games appears to be on its cloud gaming service, Luna, which just received a major overhaul last week. The company is reportedly shifting resources toward developing casual and AI-focused games for that platform. One example is Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, which features an AI-generated version of the rapper. This strategic move away from internally developed AAA games echoes past struggles for Amazon in the high-stakes gaming market. Its first major title, the shooter Crucible, was canceled shortly after its 2020 debut. The scaling back of New World, a game that was once a top-grossing title on Steam, signals a significant retreat from Amazon’s ambitious initial push into the games industry.
