Amazon Games has announced that it will shut New World: Aeternum down on Jan. 31, 2027. The MMO will be taken offline across PC and consoles.
Amazon also delisted the game on Jan. 15, 2026, so it’s no longer available for new purchases, but the current players will be able to continue playing for a year.
In its official post, Amazon said it is extending the Nighthaven season through the game’s end-of-service date. Additionally, the company also set the deadline of July 20, 2026, for any in-game purchases of Marks of Fortune, the game’s premium currency. These purchases will not be refunded after the game’s service ends.
Amazon also pledges to continue supporting the game and addressing any technical issues that the existing playerbase may have up until the game’s official closure.
New World originally launched on PC in 2021, then received a console release and relaunched as New World: Aeternum in October 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The renewed version had a better reception that issue-riddled original, but the playerbase still dwindled fast. Amazon had already talked about the wind-down in late 2025, saying additional content would stop after Nighthaven season, and that servers would remain online through 2026.
The shutdown announcement triggered another wave of discussions about games, their value, and initiatives to keep them alive. Alistair McFarlane, best known for his work on Rust, offered to purchase New World: Aeternum from Amazon for $25 million, stating that “Games should never die.” There’s no indication that Amazon is entertaining the proposal.
Purchasing a live MMO would entail considerable challenges for both sides, with transferring code, infrastructure, tools, licenses, and legal rights. Though the company that created Rust probably knows a thing or two about how to do this.
New World’s shutdown is exactly what the Stop Killing Games initiative was created to prevent. The initiative’s main goal is to implement consumer protection laws that would see games preserved in a playable state after their official closure.
Recently, the initiative commented on the closure of EA’s live-service game Anthem, which supposedly had the code for local servers, but the idea was scrapped. “You as the customer should have the final say as to when you’re done with a game, not the company.”
