New World: Aeternum will be taken offline in roughly one year, Amazon Games has announced. The MMO was delisted from stores yesterday, January 15, but existing owners can still play the game until it’s shut down for good.

In a blog post on New World’s official website, the developer explains that New World: Aeternum’s official shutdown date will be January 31, 2027. An FAQ states that although the game has been removed from sale, owners can still install the game from their library. In October, Amazon Games announced the game would stop receiving new content, but it will continue to monitor bugs and performance for the remainder of the game’s lifetime.

Additionally, players can purchase New World's in-game currency, Marks of Fortune, until July 20. However, purchased currency cannot be refunded. Those who recently bought the game will need to contact customer support for their respective platform's storefronts to seek a potential refund.

“We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion,” reads the blog post. “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.”

New World: Aeternum originally launched as simply New World for PC in 2021. The game centers on players inhabiting and surviving on a fantasy island, Aeternum, amid the 17th century during the Age of Exploration.  It came to consoles in 2024 with the Aeternum subtitle, along with major updates to the experience. The game was also featured in an episode of Amazon Prime’s Secret Level anthology series.

This news comes only a few months after Amazon laid off over 14,000 employees across its various divisions, including its gaming division. According to Amazon, the layoffs were made to streamline the company's workflow and management layers to ensure increased investment in its "biggest bets" as part of its push to embrace AI, which it called "the most transformative technology we've seen since the internet" at the time of the layoffs. Today's news about New World: Aeternum's impending closure comes in the same week that BioWare's Anthem was shut down for good. 

Democrats-- and social media users-- are dragging Wisconsin Republicans after they confused the only two Black men running for governor.

Read more...

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Elon Musk first sued OpenAI in February 2024. Despite OpenAI's repeated attempts to throw it out, the case is now headed to a jury trial on April 27th in […]

If you find serious bugs and vulnerabilities within Hytale and its systems, you could have a serious payday thanks to its bug bounty program.

Sanibel, Elizabeth Hargrave’s new board game, was designed with accessibility in mind, just like her previous cozy game Wingspan.