16 | January | 2026 | The Ancient Gaming Noob

We knew the end was coming. We have known it was going to happen since late October when Amazon announced that they were purging their gaming studios, preferring to pursue a future built on an AI driven Snoop Dogg path than anything approximating a world. Dreams of Middle-earth crumbled and when it came to New World… well, this is what I wrote at the time.

Then there is New World. That title is a dead man walking if ever there was one. We all know it. It is just a question of how much longer it will last.

I won’t claim to be a clairvoyant in having predicted the obvious. As it turns out, I wasn’t even pessimistic enough. In my new year’s predictions I allowed that Amazon would announce the game’s closure, but that it might last through the end of 2026.

In a surprise, especially to myself, I may have hit that one on the nose.

Welcome to a New World… please exit through the gift shop

Yesterday Amazon made an announcement that New World would shut down on January 31, 2027. The text of the announcement, since the support site will go away as soon as the game is gone, reads as follows:

A few months ago we shared with you, our valued community, that no additional content would come to New World: Aeternum after the Nighthaven seasonal update. We also said more details on what’s happening next, alongside other essential information, would soon follow. Today, we’re here to share updates and provide transparency on where the game goes from here.

New World: Aeternum will officially be taken offline from all platforms on January 31, 2027. On January 15, 2026, the title will be delisted and no longer available for purchase. Players will still be able to play New World: Aeternum on their purchased platform, and we are extending the Nighthaven season until the servers are taken offline on January 31, 2027.

We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion. 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.

I am a bit surprised Amazon kept their promise. Back in October they said they would give at least six months notice on the fate of New World. I would not have been at all surprised if they had decided to ignore that and plead special circumstances requiring an early shuttering of the game.

So if you still want to play some more of New World, you have time.

If you have never played it… well, the opportunity has passed for you.

As noted in the quoted section above, the game was delisted and made unavailable for purchase yesterday.

There was also a short FAQ appended to the announcement, which reiterates some of the points.

How long will I be able to play New World: Aeternum?
- Players who have purchased the game will be able to continue playing until January 31, 2027, when the game’s servers are permanently taken offline. Following that date, players will no longer be able to access New World: Aeternum on any platform.
Will I still be able to purchase in-game currency (e.g., Marks of Fortune) for use in the game?
- Beginning July 20, 2026, players will no longer be able to purchase Marks of Fortune or anything else in game.
Are refunds available for Marks of Fortune purchases?
- No, refunds are not available for Marks of Fortune purchases.
Will I still be able to buy the game?
- No, as of today the game is delisted and no longer available for purchase.
Can I still install New World: Aeternum if I had previously purchased the game?
- Yes, if you’ve previously purchased New World: Aeternum then you can download and install the game again.
I recently bought the game, can I get a refund?
- Please check with customer support for the platform where you purchased New World: Aeternum for assistance.
Will there be any additional bug fixes, server merges, etc. while the game remains online?
- There will be no new content or further server merges for the remainder of the game’s life, but we will continue to monitor bugs and performance to ensure the game runs smoothly as things wind down.
Will there still be world bosses and bonus weeks as long as the game remains online?
- World bosses and bonus weeks will continue until the servers shut down.

So it will be around and they’ll keep it running. You can finish out your completionist needs, but there won’t be anything new.

As for the history of the game as we enter into its final chapter… well, it was a strange ride.

Amazon announced a business model of “buy the box” with a cosmetic cash shop, which was enough to move a million units pretty quickly when it launched at the end of September 2021.

In the first week Steam showed it putting up big numbers, beating out the perennial favorites of the time, CS:GO and Dota 2.

SteamDB numbers at 19:04 UTC on Sunday Oct 3rd

That led to some amazing server queues.

Server queues on Tuesday of launch week

25,001 queued up for a server… that is a hell of a queue for a server that was set to hold something like 2,000 players back at launch.

But Amazon had a plan for that! They had their special sauce server technology that let them spin up new servers. There were issues, but no less than Bezos himself was talking to the press about having a hit game on his hands.

And then it started going wrong. Not enough planning? Too much success?

There was the launch in late September and by early December Josh Strife Hayes has a whole what went wrong video chronicling the problems and missteps of the team. By May of 2022 it was the subject of a Death of a Game video, another run through the litany of mistakes.

But it didn’t go away.

The team worked on the problems, released updates, and kept on going.

Nothing could get that day one mojo back however. The Steam numbers declined and never bounced back anywhere close to their peak. Our group kept at it until February, then jumped over to Lost Ark.

I kept an eye on the game, but every time I went back to poke my nose in, my old server had gone MIA and I had to pick a new one.

But the team was still able to get a rise out of their audience… but not in a good way when they tried to rename, rebrand, re-genre the whole thing for the console launch.

Old World, New Name

They were clearly trying to distance themselves from the PC title and the initial announcement made people wonder if this was a new game, something different that what was out there, something only for consoles that would leave PC players behind. It was confusing in the moment.

I summed up my reaction in meme form.

Re-enactment of my moment of discovery…

On Steam, the core remaining audience felt betrayed and the review bombing commenced.

That had to sting…

The team had to go into damage control mode, having realized that they had screwed up badly.

Not for the first time.

So the PC players felt alienated and the console customers were not enough to make up the difference. The team kept on working, but there was nothing for it. The reputation had been set. It was yesterday’s new with nothing splashy and new enough to revive its fortune.

From the right angle one might be surprised that it lasted as long as it did. And who knows how the financials looked. Amazon is big enough that they can hide anything in their quarterly results. But the ongoing downturn in the industry post-Covid did for it in the end.

Amazon didn’t just dump New World, it bailed on anything like deep or serious titles when the layoffs came.

I will likely put together a more detailed timeline of my own views and involvement with the game when the end comes. I have a year to dwell on that.

Our group dug into it for a while, and it did have its charms. It remains in my top ten most played titles on Steam, ahead of Lost Ark, if that is any consolation.

We shall see how things play out over the next 12 months. Maybe somebody will buy it.