Amazon Games Winds Down Major Live-Service MMO Development

Amazon Games is winding down major live‑service development after a sweeping round of corporate layoffs, announcing that its MMO New World will receive no further content updates and that staff reductions have effectively halted work on a planned Lord of the Rings MMO, company communications and affected employees said this week. The moves follow a broader round of cuts at Amazon that the company said will eliminate about 14,000 roles across the business and disproportionately affect its Irvine and San Diego game studios.

In a statement posted to New World’s official site, Amazon Game Studios said that after four years of steady updates and a recent console release it had “reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates.” The studio said Season 10 and the Nighthaven update will serve as the game’s final content drops, that Nighthaven and the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion have been made free to players, and that servers will remain operational through 2026 with at least six months notice before any shutdown. Amazon said it will continue to issue bug fixes and maintenance and that in‑game purchases and...