Amazon has announced that its MMORPG, New World: Aeternum, will cease receiving updates after a four-year run.

The news was shared via a Steam announcement on the 29th. The development team stated, "We have reached a point where it is no longer feasible to continue providing new content updates," adding that Season 10 will mark the final addition of new material. The servers are scheduled to remain operational until 2026.

New World: Aeternum debuted in 2021 as an MMORPG from Amazon, once boasting a peak of 910,000 concurrent players. However, over time, the game faced criticism for persistent bugs, a lack of content, and deflationary issues, with the peak concurrent player count dropping to around 30,000 as of October 29.

While the specific reason for the end of updates has not been officially disclosed, industry analysts point to Amazon’s large-scale workforce reduction as a primary cause. According to various international media outlets, Amazon carried out a layoff of 14,000 employees on the 28th (local time). This reportedly included development studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as the internal game publishing division.

Following the news, users are expressing concerns, asking, "Are Throne and Liberty and the North American servers for Lost Ark also at risk?" While New World was developed in-house by Amazon, making it unlikely to follow the exact same path, the scale of the layoffs suggests that there could be some impact on other titles.