NEWS
by Dan Lenois
New World development ended, Amazon Games "evaluating" path forward
Only three weeks following the release of the game's most recent major content update, "Nighthaven", Amazon Games has officially confirmed that all active development on New World: Aeternum has been terminated.
Steve Bloom, the Vice President of Audio Twitch & Games at Amazon, recently wrote in an internal memo, later leaked to Variety:
"Over the last several months, we’ve been evaluating our go-forward plans, specifically through the lens of our mission to deliver the very best gaming experiences to customers while leaning into the things that Amazon does best."
Citing "a critical look at the evolving dynamics of games industry and competitive landscape", Bloom would go on to confirm that Amazon had:
"made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs – within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team.”
Bloom would later clarify his remarks, assuring fans and investors alike that Amazon Games would continue to operate in the capacities of both developer and/or publisher for various current and future games.
Amazon's New World would initially launch on September 28th, 2021, with strong player interest pre-launch, but a poor critical reception at release. Amazon would spend the next several years overhauling several core gameplay components and addressing other player concerns, culminating in a October 15, 2024 official relaunch of the game, now entitled New World: Aeternum. This relaunch would include an all-new narrative, a reworked combat system, new additions to the world, and a slew of bug fixes and improvements.
The New World: Aeternum development team has thus far declined to comment on the game's future beyond issuing a brief press statement informing fans that the recent Season 10 content update would be the final official update for the game, and that servers would continue to be online for the foreseeable future.