Amazon is winding down its still-popular New World MMO amid mass layoffs

Amazon Video games is winding down assist for New World: Aeternum amid layoffs in the division and even deeper job cuts throughout its mum or dad firm. The sport debuted on PC in 2021 and it landed on PS5 and Xbox Collection X/S simply over a 12 months in the past.

“After 4 years of regular content material updates and a serious new console launch, we have reached some extent the place it’s not sustainable to proceed supporting the sport with new content material updates,” Amazon Video games wrote in a blog post. “The not too long ago launched Season 10 and Nighthaven replace will function the ultimate content material launch for New World on PC and consoles. It is just after a lot consideration that we have reached this determination.”

Gamers will nonetheless have the ability to purchase New World for now, and it’ll stay obtainable to PlayStation Plus subscribers on the Additional and Premium tiers “till additional discover.” Amazon is making this month’s Nighthaven enlargement obtainable to everybody without cost too.

The corporate stated it would preserve the sport’s servers up and operating by way of 2026, “permitting our group time to proceed their adventures in Aeternum.” When it comes to how lengthy followers will have the ability to preserve enjoying the sport, Amazon stated it would present extra particulars about “what to anticipate within the coming months.” It pledged to “present a minimal of six months’ discover earlier than making any adjustments that impression your potential to play New World: Aeternum.”

Based on Bloomberg, Amazon advised workers in a memo this week that, as a part of widespread layoffs, it could dial again work on big-budget video games, particularly MMOs — a class that New World falls beneath. Updates for Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark — MMOS that Amazon publishes however are developed externally — will proceed, the corporate confirmed to MassivelyOP.

Amazon didn’t touch upon the standing of a Lord of the Rings MMO that’s been within the works for some time. Nevertheless, in response to Eurogamer, a former Amazon senior gameplay engineer wrote in a since-deleted LinkedIn publish that they had been laid off “alongside my extremely gifted friends on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings sport (y’all would have cherished it).”

Amazon Video games vice chairman Christoph Hartmann told me last year that Amazon began its large push into video games with MMOs as a result of it noticed a possibility. On the time, there weren’t too many titles in that style popping up. Nevertheless, he famous that “we’re evolving out of the MMOs” into different genres, hinting then that the division was altering focus. (Amazon’s first AAA sport, the free-to-play shooter Crucible, didn’t last long after its debut in 2020.)

New World remains to be a preferred sport. It bought off to a blistering begin, with a peak concurrent participant depend of 914,000 on Steam. This previous weekend, it at one level had practically 50,000 concurrent gamers on that platform. It was additionally one of many highest grossing games on Steam in 2021.

And but plainly Amazon’s video games division will now focus extra on Luna, the cloud service for which it rolled out an overhaul just last week. It reportedly plans to maintain releasing “informal and AI-focused video games” for Luna, akin to Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, which places an AI-generated model of the rapper in a Decide Judy-type function for courtroom case-style debates between gamers. Amazon’s most up-to-date sport for PC and consoles is King of Meat, a co-op dungeon-building platformer that has to date reached a peak Steam concurrent participant depend of simply 253.

Replace, October 30 11:02AM ET: Up to date with particulars concerning the Lord of the Rings sport’s doable cancellation.