Amazon has ended development on New World, the company's big fantasy MMO. Season 10 is the last round of updates the game will receive, as some 14,000 jobs are impacted by layoffs across Amazon Games.
As you might imagine, many of the large-scale action-RPG's players are feeling a mixture of emotions at this announcement, anger and sadness being two major ones. Some of them have poured hours into Aeternum, making friends and forging deep bonds through the game.
One such player, who clocked an incredible 13,000 hours exploring, foraging and battling in the rich, fantastical landscape, wrote an impassioned Reddit post expressing their sorrow. "I can't even find the motivation to play. I think what's going on is unbelievably sad. And I'm feeling more than a little morose," they state.
Coming less than a month after the Nighthaven expansion makes this "extra hard to take," as they lament what seemed like real hope for the project’s future. "New World was back. The game was alive," they say, before thanking everyone involved, especially the players: "The game is nothing without us."
Their sentiment is shared in the Steam reviews, which are dragging New World's standing on Valve’s store into the gutter. "Amazon just stabbed it in the back," writes one New World-er who managed 100 hours over the course of a month.
"Shame on you Amazon," says another. "Never trust Amazon Games," a third reviewer adds, and on and on. Lots of people are feeling a little betrayed by the decision, sudden as it seems, since there appeared to be more genuine investment going into making this a long-term release.
New World’s servers will remain active through 2026, and there'll be at least six months for any decisions made otherwise, according to the announcement blog post. Sadly, this doesn't appear to make it any less painful.
