Amazon has seemingly decided that the bets it had made to enter the gaming industry haven’t paid off to the company’s liking. According to a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, as part of large-scale lay-offs being conducted by Amazon affecting more than 14,000 employees, its video game division is also being hit. The company hasn’t yet confirmed how many of the jobs from the division will be affected, but internal memos have made a note of “significant role reductions” happening.
The memo has also noted that the company is “leaning into things that Amazon does best,” and that it will continue with the development of some of its projects, including March of Giants, as well as “casual and AI-focused games”. Work on the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider project is also seemingly continuing.
One of the projects affected by this is MMORPG New World: Aeternum. The development team has already announced that its last major content drop for the game – Season 10 and Nighthaven – will serve as the final bit of content released for it. No more content has been planned for the game for the future. As part of this decision, the development team has also announced that the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion has been made free to all players on PC. Side activities like world bosses and bonus weeks will still take place. However, seasonal events will be getting cut backs, with no more holiday events planned for the future.
While this might spell doom for the MMORPG, the studio has confirmed that its servers will remain live until the end of 2026. When the decision is ultimately made to pull the plug on the servers, the studio will be providing a minimum of six months’ notice. Players across PC and console will also still be able to continue purchasing the game “until further notice.” Players subscribed to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium will also still be able to access New World: Aeternum. The development team has also promised that, while no new content is being developed, support for the game will continue through the release of bug fixes, patches and server merges as required.
“As New World recognizes its fourth anniversary since launching on PC, we reflect on an incredible journey shaped by our dedicated player community,” wrote Amazon Game Studios in its announcement. “Your feedback and passion have been instrumental in evolving Aeternum into the world it is today, and our team is deeply grateful for this shared adventure. 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.”
There is currently no word on whether these cutbacks are also going to affect another major MMO project in the works at Amazon – a game adapting the world of The Lord of the Rings. The company does seem to want to keep making smaller-scale projects for release on game streaming service Luna, however.
