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Welp, it's official, Amazon is pulling the plug on its fantasy MMO New World following the recent launch of season 10. The news follows closely on the heels of massive layoffs at Amazon impacting 14,000 employees and effectively gutting the company's gaming division.
In an update on the MMO's official website, Amazon says it's been a great four years "shaped by our dedicated player community," but for reasons unspecified but implicitly clear, it's "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," says Amazon. "It is only after much consideration that we've reached this decision."
Amazon adds that the Nighthaven and Rise of the Angry Earth DLCs are free for owners of the base game as a thanks to the community, but it's worth noting that this has been the case for a couple of weeks now.
To be clear, New World will still be playable for the foreseeable future, and nothing is changing about it right now in terms of what you can do, buy, and access, but it sounds like 2026 could be its final year before servers are shut down.
"In the coming months, we will provide more details on what to expect and other essential information," says Amazon. "Rest assured, our intention is to keep servers operating through 2026, allowing our community time to continue their adventures in Aeternum."
Amazon says it'll give at least six months notice before doing anything that'll impact the playability of New World, so at least you'll have time to say your goodbyes. Still, it's disheartening to see a big MMO like this being killed only four years from launch, compared to my childhood when big studio-backed MMOs would run for decades.
New World may not have been among the best MMOs out there, but it deserves better than this.
