A number of months in the past, New World acquired axed, sharing the destiny of so a lot of its live-service brethren. And whereas the servers are nonetheless kicking, no new content material will come to the sport, and now Rust‘s lead dev desires to reserve it from sure doom, very similar to Hytale was again in November 2025.
New World had its improvement frozen final yr, indicating a full-blown shutdown was quickly to observe. Issues remained calm for a spell, and the servers saved kicking, however Amazon has since delisted the sport from all shops, stopping any additional purchases. Servers are prone to be minimize by early subsequent yr, if not earlier, marking the top of an formidable undertaking that was to dethrone World of Warcraft because the go-to MMO (one thing many had tried and did not do over time).
Alistair McFarlane, COO of Rust developer Facepunch, got here out with a proposition to purchase out the sport from Amazon, saving it from being taken offline. He mentioned on X that “video games ought to by no means die,” and supplied 25 million (in all probability GBP) for the sport. Up to now, Amazon doesn’t appear to have responded to the general public supply.
However one curious particular person did reply, Simon Collins-Laflamme, founder and unique proprietor of Hytale, who rescued his personal undertaking from the clutches of Riot Video games and its doubtful improvement cycles. Hytale, after years in limbo on the firm, was repurchased by Collins-Laflamme and eventually launched in early entry. Being an knowledgeable on the subject of saving useless video games, he supplied McFarlane “recommendations on shopping for canceled video games,” which may result in a Hytale-style state of affairs with New World.
How real and severe McFarlane’s supply is stays unknown, however it will actually be factor for the market to avoid wasting dying video games if there’s any probability at saving them. Positive, I assume Amazon did its market evaluation and noticed New World‘s declining participant base as unsalvageable, however maybe it didn’t attempt as onerous because it may, or had as a lot ambition as, say, Facepunch would.
We’ll have to attend and see if something comes of this, however whereas negotiations proceed in sooth or jokingly, New World continues to exist in stasis, awaiting the axe to lastly drop after staring it down for months.
