Amazon Game Studios will stop publishing Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty in the coming months, with blog posts on both MMOs' websites confirming the handovers on Wednesday, Polygon reports. Neither game is shutting down: both continue under new western publishers.
Throne and Liberty goes first, at some point in Q4 2026, with publishing reverting to FirstSpark Games and NC, formerly NCSoft. Lost Ark follows in early 2027, with developer Smilegate taking western publishing duties directly.
What happens to player accounts
Throne and Liberty players keep their existing characters and accounts on PC and consoles through the transition, unless they opt out of having their data passed to NC. PC Gamer reports that a small number of details on that changeover are still being settled and will be announced closer to the date.
Lost Ark players keep progression and account data, including ship, playlist and NPC names. What does not survive the move is messaging: in-game mail, friends list memos and blacklist entries, guild and stronghold memos, and chat history all fall away. As with Throne and Liberty, players who would rather Smilegate did not receive their data at all can opt out of the transfer entirely.
Both games keep running as normal and will receive regular content updates until the handovers, though FirstSpark warned that major Throne and Liberty updates may be held back until its transition is complete.
The end of Amazon's MMO era
Amazon Game Studios spent the early 2020s positioning itself as the premier MMO publisher in the West, shipping its own New World and bringing Asian MMOs including Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty to North America and Europe. It began divesting from games last October.
Since then it has set an end-of-service date for New World, shut down King of Meat, backed out of publishing Maverick Games' Clutch and the MOBA March of Giants, and laid off developers, including a March round that hit its Lost Ark team. The only titles it is still committed to publishing are Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Tomb Raider: Catalyst and party games for its Luna cloud service, though Amazon gaming GM Jeff Gattis told Polygon the company is interested in publishing future James Bond games.
Lost Ark is available on Windows PC; Throne and Liberty is on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
