New World was once the crown jewel in Amazon’s rising gaming ambitions. Developed in-house, the MMO initially exploded in popularity on Steam and seemed to have decent legs in the notoriously competitive genre. Less than five years later, it’s officially being killed. Servers will go offline in January 2027. The news has prompted a reaction from many who are tired of big games vanishing so quickly after launch, including an executive at Rust maker Facepunch Studios.
“25m, final offer Amazon Games,” the London-based company’s COO, Alistair McFarlane, wrote in response to the news on X. “Games should never die,” he added, before going on to juxtapose Amazon’s approach to online games with Facepunch’s. “As with everything we do at Facepunch, empower the community.” when someone asked what the Rust maker buying New World would look like. “Give them control, make servers publicly hostable. A game will live forever in the hands of a dedicated community.”
The writing for New World has been on the wall since last fall. Despite recently releasing new updates and seasonal content changes appearing to come and go as planned, Amazon announced in late October that the game would be going on life support with no meaningful additions planned in the future. The servers would remain open and operating “through 2026” to allow the community “time to continue their adventures in Aeternum.”
Games should never die.
— Alistair McFarlane (@Alistair_McF) January 15, 2026
While Amazon is technically holding up that end of the bargain, remaining fans probably weren’t expecting the tech giant to kick the new year off with a full-blown death sentence. “We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion. We are grateful for the time spent crafting the world of Aeternum with you,” an unattributed blog post that went up on the game’s website this week reads. “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.”
New World is no longer for sale but anyone who already owns it can still re-download the game and play until January 31, 2027. Will there be any refunds? Of course not. Can you still buy premium in-game currency for real money? Strangely, yes. “Beginning July 20, 2026, players will no longer be able to purchase Marks of Fortune or anything else in game,” reads the new FAQ. Why not unlock everything and make all cash transactions in the game free? No idea.
All of this stems from Amazon’s wider pivot away from internal game development, with mass layoffs last fall that included not only the end of New World but seeming cuts to other projects including a Lord of the Rings MMO. The company hasn’t confirmed if that project is dead or still being shopped around to other outside development partners. Amazon is also set to publish the upcoming Tomb Raider games, including this year’s Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a remake of the original game.
