Amazon Steps Back From Publishing as Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty Find New Homes
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Amazon Game Studios is stepping away from publishing Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty, passing duties back to their original developers over the coming months as the company winds down its gaming division.
Amazon Game Studios is officially stepping out of the publishing picture for two of its biggest live service titles. According to official blog posts covered by Polygon, Amazon will hand publishing duties for Throne and Liberty back to FirstSpark Games and NC in the fourth quarter of 2026, while Smilegate will take over western publishing for Lost Ark in early 2027. For players invested in these massive online worlds, the transitions bring a mix of relief and logistical cleanup.
Throne and Liberty players on PC and console will keep their characters and accounts as long as they agree to the data transfer over to NC. Lost Ark players face a similar path when Smilegate takes the reins in 2027. Progression, rosters, and names carry over, but players will lose in-game mail messages, friend lists, blacklists, guild data, strongholds, and chat histories during the switch.
Anyone who prefers not to have their data transferred can opt out entirely. This shift is just the latest chapter in Amazon winding down its broader gaming division. After trying to carve out a massive footprint as a premier publisher of blockbuster online games in the early 2020s, the tech giant began pulling back last fall.
Since then, the studio has set an end-of-service date for New World, cancelled titles like King of Meat, walked away from external projects like Maverick Games' Clutch and March of Giants, and gone through significant layoffs. Amazon Game Studios now maintains focus on a much smaller slate, including upcoming Tomb Raider projects and Luna cloud gaming party titles, alongside potential future James Bond games. While the sudden publisher shuffle is disruptive, the survival of these long-running community ecosystems is a win for the dedicated player bases keeping them alive across PC and console.
Tags: MMO, Amazon Games, Lost Ark, Throne and Liberty, PC Gaming
Original article: Polygon