New World Enters Maintenance Mode — Now Is The Time For It To Go Free-To-Play

Amazon Games has officially announced that New World is entering maintenance mode, marking the end of major development for the buy-to-play MMORPG. Season 10, Nighthaven, was the game’s final content update. Beyond this point, there will be no new seasons, no additional expansions, and no significant feature updates — only bug fixes and small quality-of-life patches until the servers eventually shut down. So I ask again: why is New World not free-to-play? The time is now, more than ever.

For fans who have been around since 2021, this feels like the final chapter in a long, winding story — a tragic one, really. The game was one of the most hyped MMOs ever, peaking at more than 900,000 concurrent players at its height. But the excitement faded quickly due to technical problems, content droughts, and confusing endgame systems. The team behind New World never gave up on it, though. Over the years, they released major updates such as Brimstone Sands, Rise of the Angry Earth, and the very recent Nighthaven, refined the combat system, and reworked early leveling. Today, the game is more polished and enjoyable than ever before. That is what makes this announcement so difficult to accept — just when it finally felt like New World had found its footing, the studio gets deleted.

What is even worse, however, is that Amazon is still selling the game at full price ($60) and keeping the in-game microtransactions active. Even after announcing the end of new updates, New World remains available for purchase on Steam and Amazon’s own storefront, complete with premium items, mounts, and token bundles still listed in its shop.

Here is the disclaimer on Steam: “Notice: New World: Aeternum is no longer releasing content updates. Season 10 and the Nighthaven Update (released in October 2025) were the final updates. Servers will remain active through 2026, and all existing content will continue to be playable, but there will be no further content updates released in the game.”

Historically, when other MMOs entered their end phases, publishers shut down premium shops or made cosmetics free as a way to thank the community. By contrast, Amazon’s decision to keep monetization active feels tone-deaf. For a company with near-limitless resources, the optics are terrible — it looks like a last-minute cash-out.

Amazon’s official reasoning is that servers will remain online “for the foreseeable future,” with a promise to give at least six months’ notice before any shutdown. That is fair in a technical sense, but it misses the point. Players are not questioning whether the game still functions—they are questioning the integrity of continuing to sell it as if nothing has changed. The situation also raises broader questions about Amazon Games’ strategy. Reports suggest the company is scaling back its first-party AAA development, including MMOs, following internal restructuring and layoffs. New World appears to be a casualty of that shift, joining a list of Amazon projects that launched with promise but never achieved long-term sustainability.

This could have been an opportunity. Now that New World truly is entering the end of its journey, it is the perfect moment to make it free-to-play. The infrastructure is already there: seasonal battle passes, a cosmetics store, and a progression loop built around long-term engagement. Dropping the entry price could bring in an influx of curious players who were never willing to pay upfront. It would give Aeternum’s towns, fields, and dungeons a second life — one last surge of activity before the inevitable end. Even without new expansions, a free-to-play model could sustain the community and keep servers alive far longer than if Amazon simply lets it fade away.

Really, though, New World deserved a better send-off. After years of updates, patches, and community goodwill, it finally reached a point where it felt like a complete, polished experience. To see it wind down now, while still being sold and monetized, feels wrong. The community kept faith through some of the game’s darkest days; the least Amazon could do is open the gates for everyone else to join them one last time — free of charge.