New World Fans Are Rebuilding Its Servers. Amazon shuts the MMO down January 31, and volunteers have already recreated its combat, gathering and progression from captured network traffic.

What Happened

Amazon is switching New World: Aeternum off for good, and a fan project is rebuilding its server before that happens.

The shutdown

• The date. New World, the online-only MMO from the tech giant Amazon, goes offline on every platform on January 31, 2027.
• Delisted first. Amazon announced the shutdown on January 15, 2026, the same day it pulled the game from storefronts.
• Owners lose it too. Having bought the game doesn't matter: nobody can play it once the servers close.
• One last season. Nighthaven, the game's current season, runs until that day.

The fan server

• Meet Azoth. A fan project called Azoth is rebuilding New World's server so the game stays playable after Amazon's goes dark.
• Already working. Massively OP, an MMO news site, reported on October 19 that Azoth has recreated food and food buffs, gathering, character progression, combat and a first pass at creatures.
• Client still required. Players will need the original New World game client to connect.
• Not Amazon's. Azoth Central, the project's site, calls it "a fan preservation project, not affiliated with Amazon".
• No date yet. Mendoi, a gaming news site, traces Azoth's public debut to an October 11 post on r/newworldgame, the game's subreddit, and reports no playable build or launch date.

How Azoth Rebuilds It

Azoth learns the server from traffic players record, and most of that traffic is still unread.

• The ask. Azoth wants players to record network packets, the messages the official server sends the game, while they play.
• The tool. Azoth Capture, the project's recording app, is free and open source under the MIT licence.
• Where it runs. Azoth Capture runs on Windows, and on Linux through Proton, Steam's layer for running Windows games.
• The reward. Top contributors get first access to Azoth servers.
• The tally. Azoth Central tracked 1,062 packet types when we read it on October 20.
• Solved so far. Only 59 are solved, meaning the format is known and the Azoth server uses it.
• Still missing. Another 515 are captured but not yet solved, and 488 have never been recorded.

Those counts change daily. A packet nobody records before January 31 can't be recorded afterwards, because Amazon's servers are the only thing that sends it.

Riot's Link to Amazon's Teams

The executive behind the Riot MMO went shopping in public when Amazon cut its game teams.

• Amazon's cuts. In October 2025, cuts hit Amazon's game teams.
• A fan's pitch. On October 28, 2025, a fan on X urged Riot to hire Amazon's game developers.
• Merrill answered. Marc Merrill, Riot's co-founder and the Riot MMO's executive sponsor, quote-posted it the same day.

What This Means for the Riot MMO

New World shows what an online-only MMO leaves players when it ends, and Riot has not said what its own would leave.

• Servers are the game. An online-only MMO stops when its servers do; Azoth exists because no offline or private-server option was ever released.
• No Riot policy. Riot has said nothing about what would happen to its MMO's world if the game ever ended.
• Riot ends things too. 2XKO, Riot's fighting game, ends active development in December 2026, and Riot is sunsetting League Classic, a League of Legends mode.
• Same talent pool. Merrill's pitch ties the MMO's hiring to the studio whose MMO is now closing.
• Legal grey zone. Fan servers run in a legal grey zone, and nothing Azoth builds carries Amazon's sign-off.

Our read. People are spending months rebuilding a game its owner has shut down. That attachment is what Riot's MMO is trying to earn, and players who give it that much will want to know what happens if the servers ever close. Riot has not said.

What to Watch

The shutdown date and more on how MMOs end and begin.

Your Take

Reported from Massively OP, Mendoi, Azoth Central, Amazon Games (Steam) and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.