Amazon MMO New World Has Just a Year to Live, Rust Dev Offers to Buy It

Amazon has announced that its MMO, New World, will be officially taken offline from all platforms on January 31, 2027.

The game is now delisted, meaning it is no longer available for purchase. You can still play New World until January next year, with the Nighthaven season extended until the servers shut down.

“We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion,” a statement on the New World website reads. “We are grateful for the time spent crafting the world of Aeternum with you. Together we built something special. While we are saddened to say goodbye, we’re honored that we were able to share so much with the community.

“It has been our pleasure to work on New World: Aeternum and evolve this unforgettable adventure with you all. We look forward to one more year together, and giving this fantastic adventure a sendoff worthy of a legendary hero. From the bottom of all our hearts, thank you for sharing this world with us.”

Amazon announced plans to put New World into maintenance mode back in October, as part of a round of layoffs affecting an eye-watering 14,000 roles. At the time, Amazon said New World would remain online throughout 2026.

New World was a rare success for Amazon in the video game space, following multiple failures that led to game and studio closures. The MMO set in an alternate 1600s America saw massive player numbers on Steam, peaking at 913,634 concurrent players on Valve’s platform in 2021. Player counts dropped sharply after that high point.

Bloomberg reported that Amazon was scaling back especially on MMOs, but would continue developing Amazon Games Montreal’s March of Giants, its new Tomb Raider game at Crystal Dynamics, and "casual and AI-focused games" for its cloud gaming service Luna. UK studio Maverick Games was also said to be continuing work on its racing game. After the New World news, concerns arose about the future of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings MMO. Amazon has not yet provided an update.

But is there hope for New World yet? Alistair McFarlane, COO and company director at Rust developer Facepunch Studios, tweeted offering Amazon $25 million for New World, adding: “Games should never die.” “If you need tips about buying cancelled games, lmk,” replied Hypixel Studios founder Simon Collins-Laflamme, who rescued Hytale after years spent in limbo at League of Legends maker Riot Games.

25m, final offer @amazongames

— Alistair McFarlane (@Alistair_McF) January 15, 2026

It sounds like McFarlane has thought deeply about this, outlining what should happen to New World instead of closure: “As with everything we do at Facepunch, empower the community. Give them control, make servers publicly hostable. A game will live forever in the hands of a dedicated community.”