The massive layoffs in Amazon’s gaming department (Amazon Games) have sent massive shockwaves through the community. While this is impacting the developers, it will also affect gamers, as New World might not be the only game shutting down; the division’s entire MMO catalogue is in danger.

Due to the company essentially pulling away from first-party AAA titles, the future of several major MMOs is hanging in the balance. While New World is keeping its servers live through 2026, that safety net doesn’t extend to every game.

Amazon Games’ MMO Lineup Faces Uncertain Futures

Credits: Amazon Games

Credits: Amazon Games

Credits: Amazon Games

Credits: Amazon Games

Amazon has a decent MMO lineup with some successes and failures. But all of them are suddenly looking like they are characters of Game of Thrones, where no one feels safe.

Yes, Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark are still running strong, and developers are given confidence that they will be supported for the foreseeable future. However, corporate talks are never worth taking face value, so they’re living on borrowed time if corporations find them worthy enough.

This statement in a memo from Steve Boom, VP of audio, Twitch, and games, shows that the company doesn’t see a future in MMO games (via Variety).

We have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs.

Both games rely heavily on Amazon’s continued support, as their server, community management, and live updates are all managed by them, all of which becomes harder to control and manage when the team behind them is shrinking fast.

Then there’s the upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO, which might not even make it out of Mordor at this rate. Rumors suggest that the project could be quietly cancelled. If Amazon truly wants to focus on casual, cloud-based titles for Luna, these massive online worlds might be the first to cut down.

Mass Layoffs Reflect a Turbulent Era for AAA Development

Layoffs are sweeping through gaming like a bad DLC update. | Credits: Amazon Games

Amazon isn’t alone on this layoff wave. Across the industry, big companies are doing the layoffs like it’s a new Fortnite dance emote. Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, and even smaller studios have all cut hundreds, sometimes thousands, of jobs this year.

They do this all in the name of budget cuts. The real reason is the rising development costs (games take years to make now, stack cost in hundreds of millions), slower returns on blockbuster titles, a ruthless push toward AI tools, and transforming every title into a live-service model.

Once-reliable AAA companies and developer studios are being shelved faster than unfinished quests in a gamer’s quest menu. The only silver lining with this drastic change is that Indie developers and smaller studios might finally get the spotlight they deserve.

But for players and creators who want to enjoy the next big thing in gaming and wait years for it (…….GTA 6), the canceled projects feel less like “next-gen” and more like let’s see where “next round of layoffs” will happen.

Is this a correct move by Amazon Games, or should it also prioritize traditional MMO experience as well? Comment below to let us know.
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