While newer players interested in checking out New World: Aeternum can no longer get their hands on the title, players that had already purchased it will continue to have access for the next year. Since no new content is being made for it anymore, the developers have also confirmed that the entire year will have the Nighthaven season running until the servers are shut down.

“We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion,” wrote the studio on its official blog. “”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.”

In an FAQ section on the official website, the developers have also confirmed that the in-game store will be taken down on July 20, 2026, preventing players from buying Marks of Fortune, among other things. Refunds will also not be issued for Marks of Fortune that have been purchased.

Amazon Game Studios had announced that development on New World: Aeternum was coming to an end back in October 2025. At the time, the developers had noted that the game will be available to purchase and play “until further notice”. Coinciding with the ending of its development, the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion had also been made free for all PC players.

“As New World recognizes its fourth anniversary since launching on PC, we reflect on an incredible journey shaped by our dedicated player community,” Amazon Game Studios wrote at the time. “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.”

New World: Aeternum getting killed off as part of a longer series of lay-offs that had hit Amazon last year. Reports had indicated that more than 14,000 employees were affected across its various divisions, including video games. The company had noted at the time that it was shifting its focus from major AAA games to “casual and AI-focused games”, and is part of its shift to “leaning into things that Amazon does best.”

For more details on New World: Aeternum, check out our review.

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. 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 cutbacks, 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 shut down servers, the studio will provide 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 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.

Of course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to releases. Deep Field Games’ Abiotic Factor, which exits Steam Early Access on July 22nd, will also be available on day one on the service for PS5. There’s also Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Planet Zoo and New World: Aeternum to look forward to on July 15th.

PS4 (and PS5) players can check out Risk of Rain 2, Bluey: The Videogame and Tropico 6. If that wasn’t enough, Premium subscribers receive access to Twisted Metal 3 and 4 on both platforms, each title featuring quick save, rewind and up-rendering alongside custom filters.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"The majority of the challenges came from ensuring New World: Aeternum performed well and looked great no matter what platform players chose, and maintaining the high bar set for the visual fidelity."

How much of a challenge was it scaling the game down to have it work on consoles?

The majority of the challenges came from ensuring New World: Aeternum performed well and looked great no matter what platform players chose, and maintaining the high bar set for the visual fidelity. Additionally getting the controller feel took a lot of work not just for combat and making this feel natural for players but also how they would navigate the complex system of menus.

How have you balanced especially the PvP with the concessions made to cross-platform play?

We definitely wanted controller to be competitive with keyboard / mouse in PvP. We added a number of passive assist features for controller, including reticle and magnetism and homing. We changed our movement system for controller to grant full 360 degree movement, and we added an active target lock. Thanks to player feedback in our beta tests, we think we have found a good balance for the target lock, but we are continuing to keep an eye on it as more players enjoy the game.

Did the development team ever consider changes to the mechanics or structure to accommodate console players?

A lot of work went into navigation of the UI (simplification of interactions) and support for controller (combat to menu navigation). On the controller we made camera adjustments to better follow the camera around target lock. We added a virtual cursor & keyboard (with variable friction and magnetism settings), aim assist and settings, target lock, haptics, etc. — and so on. We also added plenty of gamepad shortcuts in the UI to make the VC easier to use (e.g. X as a default to action/proceed). Additionally we also made sure consoles still support keyboard and mouse, in case that’s how players would prefer to play.

"Over the past three years we’ve listened to players and made hundreds of improvements and additions to New World—from completely revamping the story and early levels of the game, to adding new end-game expeditions and mutations, new weapons, and many quality of life updates and rebalances. And now, with New World: Aeternum, we’re adding even more."

Aeternum marks a sort of a fresh launch for New World. What are the new functions and features you would advertise to lapsed players as the most significant? Obviously, they can expect cross-platform play and better controller support as part of this update, but what else?

Over the past three years we’ve listened to players and made hundreds of improvements and additions to New World—from completely revamping the story and early levels of the game, to adding new end-game expeditions and mutations, new weapons, and many quality of life updates and rebalances. And now, with New World: Aeternum, we’re adding even more—including the first ever large-scale PvP zone, new 10-player raid, gear-score increase to 725 and end-game solo trial challenges. If it’s been a while since they’ve played, now is a great time to come back and find a really fresh and exciting experience waiting for you.

In the near future, what else can new World players expect to be coming to the game? What do your post-launch plans look like once Aeternum is out?

New World: Aeternum has a bright future with more seasons, more content updates, and in-game events planned for the future. We will have more news on this coming soon.

Do you see a chance, hypothetically speaking, of this game launching on the Nintendo Switch successor?

Right now we’re focused on providing a great experience for players on our current platforms.

It is worth noting, however, that the scale of changes brought to New World as part of the Aeternum release isn’t quite on the scale of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which essentially completely remade two continents and changed up the entirety of the leveling experience from scratch, nor is it on the scale of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, which is basically a new game altogether when compared to the original release. New World: Aeternum, instead, focuses more on streamlining the core storyline of the game, offering new players a more focused experience that won’t leave them wandering around trying to figure out what’s happening.

"However, despite the improved pacing of the story, it’s still not really a particularly interesting one."

When it comes to this storyline streamlining, Amazon Games has quite definitely succeeded. The new take on the story provides an excellent prologue chapter that acts as a tutorial for the core mechanics of the game, and then drops you into its main world while giving you more than enough indications of where you should go and what you should do next. Generally speaking, the entire storyline is much better handled now, with the scope and pace of the storytelling rarely faltering.

However, despite the improved pacing of the story, it’s still not really a particularly interesting one. After the relatively bombastic prologue, the story grinds to a halt and gets you involved in local small-town politics, complete with a regent doing their best to lead their settlement while the ruler’s missing, and a minister that obviously has ulterior motives and might even be working against you the entire time. The story in New World: Aeternum is pretty trope-heavy, and there’s nothing deeper here than the grand good versus evil stories we’ve seen in several titles. Even the primary antagonist comes off as rather bland, especially since all she can seemingly do most of the time is throw taunts at you while impotently flailing her arms trying to cast spells.

Thankfully, however, the story’s just an excuse to set out into the world of Aeternum, and that’s one aspect where New World truly shines. Exploration and the world in general is such an important aspect of New World that even its non-combat gameplay systems revolve around it. Players can use a number of different trade skills, such as logging and mining to gather materials throughout the world. These gathering trade skills have their own progression track, with players being allowed to cut down bigger trees or mine for more fragile and fancy ores as they get further along. The materials procured can then be used to craft a variety of things, ranging from high-end equipment, end-game gear, buff-providing consumables, healing items, and even furniture, which can then be placed in your own house.

"The story’s just an excuse to set out into the world of Aeternum"

New World: Aeternum is one of those games where just living in its expansive world, even when you’re not actively out and about taking down giant bosses or fighting other players for PvP supremacy feels pretty nice. Thanks to the progression system of non-combat skills, deciding to spend multiple hours just cutting down trees in order to sell furniture to other players can have its own charms, and as a result, would also in the long-term lead to an interesting in-game economy with players freely trading with each other. These professions also feed into the housing system, where players can own their own house in the different cities throughout Aeternum, and decorate them with benches and trophies, among other things.

The combat itself is interesting, with New World leaving behind World of Warcraft’s tab-targeting system to instead feature a real-time combat system where attacks can be actively blocked or dodged, and player positioning, as well as aiming with ranged weapons are all important skills. All weapons tend to have two main actions with their weapons of choice, along with 3 abilities that can be unlocked and equipped. Using a greatsword on the PS5, for example, L2 blocks attacks, R2 h its enemies, and the various skills are equipped on L1, R1, and L1 + R1. Combine with the fact that you can equip two different weapons at any given time, and you essentially have an arsenal of 6 different abilities to play around with.

Your choice of weapons will also define your role for the content you choose to do, be it tanking with a sword and shield combination, rain down arrows on enemies as a damage dealer with a bow, snipe them from a distance with a musket, or heal allies with a staff. Magic users get additional choices with their choice of staff, with different elements all being represented, and healing being relegated to the Life staves. It’s worth noting that the main story of the game can be played with whatever loadout you might want, and even swapping between the different roles is quite encouraged.

"Your choice of weapons will also define your role for the content you choose to do"

As for what you can do aside from just following the story, New World: Aeternum has a few activities, with solo players mostly being let loose on the open world, and group players having access to 5-player dungeons, called Expeditions in this game, as well as a 10-player raid. Unfortunately, when it comes to PvE, that’s about all New World: Aeternum has to offer for endgame-centric players. If you’re into PvP, however, there are a lot more options, ranging from individual 1-on-1 duels to massive PvP battles with players of different factions fighting for control of a zone.

New World: Aeternum doesn’t seem too well suited for players that might enjoy the challenge presented by, for example, World of Warcraft’s endgame systems with its epic boss fights, and nor is its story anywhere near the quality of Final Fantasy 14’s main plot. It does, however, excel in offering more to do during the leveling process. While other MMORPGs might follow the old adage of “the real game starts once you hit level cap”, New World: Aeternum feels more comfortable in the leveling process, where you can simply decide to press pause on the story, head out into the forest, and cut down some trees.

Sure, this does mean that there won’t be much left to do once you’ve finished the story, done all the expeditions, and had your fill of PvP, and in the longer term, the game’s player base will definitely hurt for more content. Whether Amazon Games can maintain the renewed interest in New World thanks to its console release, however, will be something that becomes more evident in the long term.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

New World: Aeternum will bring plenty of new content for existing players as well. That will include a large-scale PvP arena, a new and challenging 10-player raid, solo endgame trials, new archetypes for your characters, a revamped dialogue system, and new progression mechanics, among other things.

“New World: Aeternum is the culmination of years of focused development combined with input from the dedicated community of players who’ve already carved a path in the original New World on PC,” said Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann. “Listening to player feedback is fundamental to how we make games, and we know New World: Aeternum delivers on the promise of a fresh and compelling New World experience that players can enjoy together across platforms.”

New World: Aeternum will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 15.