Amazon Game Studios to End Publishing of MMOs Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty

Amazon Game Studios will cease publishing the massively multiplayer online games Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark in western markets, transferring publishing responsibilities back to the original developers ^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}. The handoff marks a major pullback of Amazon’s MMO ambitions, which began scaling back in October 2025 and included layoffs affecting 14,000 employees in the gaming division ^{[1, 3, 4, 5]}.

Throne and Liberty’s publishing rights will move from Amazon to FirstSpark Games, formerly NCSoft, by the fourth quarter of 2026. Lost Ark’s publishing will transfer to Smilegate in early 2027 ^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}. According to Amazon Game Studios, "Starting in early 2027 Amazon Game Studios will end its live service operations of Lost Ark, with Smilegate taking over going forward" ^[2].

Players’ existing characters and account data will primarily carry over during the transition, but some Lost Ark data, including chat history, in-game mail, friends list memos, guild info, and group names will be lost ^{[1, 2, 3, 5]}. Players can opt out of transferring data if they prefer ^{[1, 2]}. Lost Ark subscriptions will also be canceled before the handoff, with players advised not to purchase new long-term subscriptions as the handling of prepaid time is finalized ^[2].

Throne and Liberty is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, while Lost Ark is PC-only ^[1]. Smilegate said that aligning Western updates with Korean releases will reduce delays that previously spoiled raid content. "Because the Western release cadence differed, raid strategies were often public by the time content arrived, which took much of the joy out of solving a raid for yourselves," Smilegate said ^[2].

Amazon will continue publishing several titles, including Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, and some party games for its Luna cloud gaming platform ^{[1, 5]}. The company announced a full shutdown of its New World MMO by January 31, 2027, following its October 2025 winding down of New World’s live service and cancellation of a separate Lord of the Rings MMO project ^{[1, 3, 4, 5]}.

Publishing of Throne and Liberty is set to transition from Amazon to NC/FirstSpark Games between October and December 2026, while Lost Ark’s publishing shift to Smilegate will occur in early 2027 ^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}.