Cover image features New World – Materials asset artwork by Joshua Stubbles who has been instrumental in creating the beautiful world we love playing in.
What Katy Did
This is the first of a series of articles keeping the remaining player base updated with what’s happening in New World over the remaining year. We will provide a summary of developer comments from the official discord, along with any other news about the game. Our goal is to publish these monthly, with this edition covering January 2026.
Contents
New World officially closing 31 January 2027
The big news this month is that Amazon Games Studio have announced the date that New World goes offline. There has been much speculation since the initial announcement in October 2025, with many players debating what “through 2026” meant and asserting that the game would close much sooner than the end of the year.
While this news is bitter, it is good to have a clear date and know that we can play for another year. We can also continue to spend (and buy) Marks of Fortune until 20 July 2026.
The worst part of the announcement is that New World: Aeternum was immediately removed from sale. No warning was given for people who wanted to try it before it closed but were holding out waiting for a discount. On top of that, Playstation Plus is removing New World from its catalog as of February 17, which means those players can’t even buy it to continue playing.
Free Region Transfers
The most exciting news on the horizon is region transfers being reinstated. Katy has confirmed this is what they are working on and had initially suggested a timeline of the end of this month. A sick services engineer and some kind of snag have delayed this but it still seems to be the priority project for the Skeleton Crew. For more details, check our discord feed below.
Holiday Events
There have been a lot of questions about events, with many players disappointed that the holiday events are no longer available. It turns that out these events are trickier than they seem as they require changes in the backend that can break things. Katy did say they are looking into whether we could have just the event shop items added, which would be great.
Facepunch "Offer"
It woudn’t really be news if I neglected to mention the excitement stirred up by Rust dev Alistair McFarlane’s flippant comments on social media about making a $25 million offer for New World. It spawned articles on PC Gamer, GameSpot, GameRant, IGN, TechPowerUp, Windows Central, Wccftech, MMORPG.com, Dexterto, PlayStation Universe, TechSpot, Sportkeeda, Insider Gaming, PCGamesN, and more.
Players were amped up about the rumours this X thread set off, with posts and arguments spreading across the r/newworldgame subreddit and various discord servers. Most, including me, dismissed it as a publicity stunt, albeit an obviously successful one. But, it looks like it may have at least started up a conversation, according to McFarlane’s LinkedIn.
This post was followed just under a week later with a Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement being signed, which means neither party can discuss the contents of the conversation.
I think we need to manage our expectations and realise this is nothing more than people in the industry talking about New World. But it does demonstrate that continuing to play the game and show fan support could have an impact for any decisions being made about the future.
Discord Feed
All this and more can be found in our dev discord feed. Not quite all of NW_Kay’s posts are included below, you can head to the official discord to see what I’ve missed out. Search from: NW_Kay or NW_Evolys to keep track of posts in real time, or check back here in a month for our next installment.
About the Roadmap.
Region transfers will be free.
That’s about 26 degrees Celsius.
In response to an obligatory “touch grass” reference.
Increased Soulmark drops would be great!
Breaking up the tension between players arguing about the fabled Facepunch deal.
Hive of Gorgons completion time time leader board rankings.
31/01/2026 – see the timestamp? That’s why I have to resort to the search function to see these posts.
Definitely looking forward to this Roadmap.
*cough* 5k *cough*
Another umbral cap increase incoming.
I miss those bobble head cats!
(“Yesterday” is 30/01/2026)
Final word on region transfers.
First Light 300 territory standing steam achievement.
Event check on Nysa.
Region transfers.
Delays for region transfers.
Completionists holding out hope that 100% will be possible.
Holiday event store items – sounds promising.
“is it possible to get firstligt back wanna see the old zone agian”
Why we can’t have the holiday events. Good to have an explanation here, at least.
Scrollbar resetting in crafting stations.
A fix for this would be much appreciated. In the meantime, we’ll continue to use the search feature to keep the list small enough so the reset doesn’t require scrolling.
Expeditions Unleashed and Siege of Sulfur not spawning.
Region transfers.
Whether region transfers will be one way or open to mingle, and whether there will be a cooldown.
Adding the Focused set to the Soulwarden Forge in Reekwater.
On holiday events.
On Hatchet’s Berserk not removing stuns.
Region transfers will be free.
First ETA on region transfers.
In response to a question about contractual obligations preventing her from making announcements about New World.
