It was practically a given following the announcement of the mass layoffs at Amazon Game Studios, but we now have confirmation that New World, the MMORPG developed by the team based in Irvine, California, is effectively on life support.
Amazon has clarified that Season 10: Nighthaven, which launched earlier this month, will be the last content update because further development 'is not sustainable'. The servers are, however, guaranteed to remain up throughout December 31, 2026 at the least. Complete closure of the servers will likely follow shortly after that date, although Amazon said it will notify players at least six months before that happens.
For now, the game and its in-game currency remain purchasable on all platforms, and New World also remains playable on PlayStation 5 for PlayStation Plus subscribers at the Extra and Premium tiers. Again, when that changes, Amazon will send a notice.
The MMORPG was the first big project financed by Amazon as part of its gaming initiative. It was originally revealed at TwitchCon 2016 alongside the MOBA Breakway and the third-person shooter game Crucible, which however were canceled before or shortly after their launch.
New World, on the other hand, kept going, albeit with a few delays. The original vision was for a sandbox-style PvP focused MMORPG, but the team pivoted to a more traditional PvE game with dungeons and story missions while still retained some PvP elements from the previous design.
As someone who followed the game throughout its entire development and then spent a couple of hundred hours playing it, I can say that this confusing design was among the game's biggest failures. While a lot of people were hyped for its release in September 2021 as the first Western-made AAA MMORPG to launch since 2014's The Elder Scrolls Online, leading to a strong debut that got even Jeff Bezos praising the team, it became immediately clear that there wasn't nearly enough PvE content to keep PvE players interested. On the other hand, the PvP limitations (optional flagging, no looting, etc.) that were introduced to cater to those PvE players ensured that even the PvP niche was not satisfied.
The game could only keep me and my guild interested for two months before boredom inevitably set in. Overall, players left in droves. To their credit, the developers started working on more PvE content, as evidenced by the following updates, the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion, and last year's Aeternum rebrand and console launch.
However, it was simply not enough to turn the tide. The final attempt with Season 10: Nighthaven actually caught the interest of MMO fans, allowing the game to rebound and bringing back long server queues, but it was probably too little, too late at that point, as Amazon had already decided to close down the project.
So far, Amazon has not clarified what will happen to The Lord of the Rings MMO project, which was revived two years ago. It is most likely dead, too, but we have asked for an official statement on the matter.
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