Original story:
In the wake of "strategic changes" at Amazon that cost 14,000 jobs and drove a stake through the heart of its best-known RPG, New World, the game's Steam page has become a sort of tombstone for it. Options to purchase the game are gone, the recent reviews are an angry chorus of fans blindsided by Amazon's decision to kill the game, and even the screenshots have vanished. In their place is a single, static image informing onlookers that content updates are done.
You can compare the page's glow-down yourself. On the Wayback Machine, a version of the New World Steam page from October 7 features 14 screenshots, three trailers, and 'Mostly Positive' recent reviews, plus options to purchase either the game's standard or deluxe edition. It's now all gone.
Which is more than a little odd, since Amazon explicitly said yesterday that the MMO would remain available for purchase "on all platforms until further notice." Canny readers may note that Steam is a platform, and that no notice was given that the game was being removed from it. I've reached out to Amazon to ask about this, and I will update this piece if I hear back.
"New World: Aeternum is no longer releasing content updates. Season 10 and the Nighthaven Update (released in October 2025), were the final updates," says the page's only image. "Servers will remain active through 2026 and all existing content will continue to be playable but there will be no further content updates released in the game."
As you might expect, players who were rather enjoying their time in New World are unhappy with this sudden death knell. Servers might be slated to stay online through next year, but it doesn't feel especially cynical to think that, come 2027, they'll be unplugged sooner rather than later.
"Recently started playing [and] was enjoying it, now it's being shut down because Amazon being Amazon," reads one recent negative review. One player, with over 7,000 hours registered in the game, writes "Now AGS has 'sunset' the game. Corporate language meaning: we stopped understanding our own product and decided to turn off the lights.
"New World did not die because of the players. The players were loyal, stubborn, delusional, passionate and impossible to break. New World died because AGS kept reacting to the game like it was a problem instead of a miracle they accidentally created."
Perhaps the most heartbreaking recent review is actually a positive one. "I wish this game stayed for a little longer because it's very nice," wrote one reviewer with nearly 60 hours clocked.
I gotta say, it does feel remarkable how quickly Amazon has washed its hands of this whole thing. A few days ago I'd have told you that New World was one of the more successful games in the Bezos stable. Not a mega-success by any stretch, but a game that had carved out a niche for itself and seemed to be doing well off of it. Now its Steam page looks like one of those houses they blur on Google Maps because a horrible crime happened in there.
Perhaps it'll all be worth it when Amazon completes its casual-gaming pivot with its Luna streaming service and we're all playing the AI-powered 'Judge Snoop Dog' game. Hey, you never know.
