Amazon halts New World development amidst layoffs

Immense layoffs at Amazon have impacted the company’s video game division and its streaming platform, Twitch. Aside from the job losses, which are said to be significant (though exact numbers for the game department are not available), Amazon’s MMORPG New World is the first game to suffer immediate consequences resulting from the move: There will be no more content updates for the title, although its servers will remain online “through 2026.” 

The publisher promised that it would give a heads-up of at least half a year if that were to change.

“After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we've reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates,” the company stated.

New World received a major update recently that fans welcomed warmly and managed to grow the game’s player population, even if the overall numbers still fell far short of those from launch. Still, the community finally agreed that New World was in a good place for the first time in years, making this announcement rather ill-timed — it’s difficult to believe that New World’s momentum will survive the feeling of impending doom now attached to it.

According to Bloomberg, the company will continue to make “casual and AI-focused games” for Amazon Luna. The titles in development at its Montreal studio, Crystal Dynamics, and Maverick Games seem to be unaffected by the layoffs.

Amazon's The Lord the Rings MMO appears to be among the victims of the cuts, however, with a former employee implying that the project has been axed.

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