The Chief Operations Officer of Facepunch Studios, the team behind Rust, has offered $25 million to save New World, an MMO from Amazon Games that’s being taken offline.
When Amazon Games launched its MMO, New World, in 2021, it became a smash hit overnight. The game hit a peak of almost a million concurrent players on Steam, but it couldn’t hold on.
Within a matter of months, the concurrent player count dropped into five figures before gradually declining into the thousands. Despite a relaunch of sorts as New World: Aeternum, multiple free weekends, and expansions, the MMO couldn’t climb out of the rut.
On October 28, 2025, developers announced there would be no further updates. A few weeks later, devs announced a final date. Come January 31, 2027, New World’s servers will be taken offline across all platforms. At least, that’s the case if the team behind Rust doesn’t get its way.
Rust dev offers $25 million to save New World
As of January 15, 2026, New World is now delisted across digital storefronts. If you own the game already, you can continue playing until January 31, 2027. By that point, it will no longer be playable for anyone.
“While we are saddened to say goodbye, we’re honored that we were able to share so much with the community,” a final blog post read.
Many chimed in across social media to decry the increasingly prominent trend of online-only games vanishing. Though one dev put their money where their mouth is.
Alistair McFarlane has been with Facepunch Studios for over a decade, serving as Producer on Rust before moving up to Company Director and now Chief Operations Officer.
He pitched a $25M offer on X (formerly Twitter) in response to news of the game going away. “Games should never die,” he added.
As for exactly what he’d do with the MMO, well, that’s simple, put the power into the community’s hands. “Give them control, make servers publicly hostable. A game will live forever in the hands of a dedicated community.”
Of course, there’s no telling if Amazon Games is even open to such an offer, let alone if $25M would be enough to move the needle. However, who else should chime in but someone who has a great deal of experience buying up ‘dead’ games.
Simon Collins-Laflamme, creator of the now massively popular Hytale, 2026’s biggest release thus far, responded to the Rust dev’s offer.
“If you need tips about buying cancelled games, [let me know], he said.
Dexerto has reached out to both Amazon Games and McFarlane for comment.
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