Alistair McFarlane, COO of Facepunch Studios, publicly offered Amazon $25 million to purchase the New World: Aeternum MMO. The proposal came shortly after Amazon announced the game's decommissioning for January 2027. McFarlane followed up with a post declaring "Games should never die," signaling serious intent behind the unusual public bid.

If Amazon accepted, McFarlane suggested Facepunch would shift development to a community-driven model. He emphasized empowering players with publicly hostable servers, a philosophy central to Facepunch's work on Rust. This approach could extend the MMO's lifespan by handing control to its dedicated community rather than shutting it down entirely.

The offer places a unique value on a game Amazon is sunsetting. While Amazon plans to keep servers online for nearly a year, a transfer seems unlikely before then. The move highlights growing tensions between corporate decisions and community preservation, questioning how long beloved online worlds should persist.