Amazon Games’ MMORPG New World (and its console version, New World: Aeternum) is going into maintenance mode, as the developer announced that it won’t get any more content updates.
According to the announcement, the recently launched Season 10 and Nighthaven update will be the last new content that the game will get, both on PC and consoles.
As a “thank you” to the community, the Nighthaven is now free for all players, while PC players will also get free access to Rise of the Angry Earth.
That being said, the game will remain playable and even purchasable (including the Marks of Fortune premium currency) for the time being, and the plan is not to sunset the game yet, with the servers that should remain online through 2026.
If you just purchased Marks of Fortune, it seems that you’re out of luck, as there won’t be any refunds. On the other hand, the announcement appears to give some hope for a refund to those who just purchased the game, who are advised to contact the customer support of the platform where they have made the purchase.
While no new content will be released, the developers also promise that they will keep the game running smoothly by releasing bug fixes and operating server merges as needed.
This comes among news of extensive layoffs at Amazon in general and Amazon Games in particular.
The company approached the MMORPG genre aggressively over the past few years, and initial efforts appeared to be successful with the popularity of Lost Ark.
Yet, things took a turn for the worse with the shutdown of Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol, which caused the western version (which was supposed to be localized and published by Amazon) to be canceled after mentions of censorship had already caused significant malcontent among the potential audience.
After that, the game was restored and published with apparent success as Blue Protocol: Star Resonance by another publisher.
On the other hand, a Lord of the Rings MMO is also in the works at Amazon Games, but its status is unknown.
