Amazon Game Studios is stepping away from direct operation of two of its biggest MMO investments in the West: Throne and Liberty will return to developer NC and its subsidiary FirstSpark Games in the fourth quarter of 2026, while Lost Ark will transition from Amazon to its original developer, Smilegate, in early 2027.

The two announcements mark a significant retreat for Amazon’s MMO publishing strategy. Rather than continuing to operate the games itself, Amazon is handing responsibility back to the companies that created them, effectively shedding two major live-service commitments after years of regional publishing, community management, customer support, localization, and content operations.

Amazon will transition Western publishing and live operations of Throne and Liberty to NC and FirstSpark Games in Q4 2026. The game has been operated in the West by Amazon for nearly two years, during which time it received regular content updates, events, maintenance, and regional support.

For players, most of the important elements are expected to remain unchanged. Characters, progression, inventory, entitlements, game data, regions, realms, and platform access will carry over unless players opt out of the migration. The game will remain available on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, with cross-play continuing across those platforms.

NC will introduce its PURPLE platform as an additional access point. Cross-progression will be supported between Steam and PURPLE, although the announcement says it will not extend across other platforms. Amazon also warned that some major updates may be delayed until after the transition. Regular content updates and bug fixes are expected to continue, but larger releases, such as Nix , may be delayed to support the data migration.

Amazon's exit from Lost Ark will take place in early 2027 , when developer Smilegate assumes direct responsibility for the Western version, taking over publishing, live operations, customer support, and the in-game store. Players will keep their Steam accounts, characters, progression, inventory, items, entitlements, purchases, and wallet balances. The account migration will happen automatically unless players opt out. After the transition, players will link their Steam accounts to Smilegate's systems and accept the developer's new Terms of Service.

There are some important exceptions concerning player-created data. In-game mail, chat history, friends-list notes, blacklist notes, guild-member nicknames, stronghold gift messages, and some other free-text content will not transfer. Amazon recommends claiming any important items from in-game mail before the transition.

Smilegate will also take over the game’s official website and community channels. After the handoff, Amazon's Western Lost Ark social accounts, Discord, and related channels will no longer be operated by the company.

Amazon entered the games business with an ambitious focus on online worlds and live services. New World and the big The Lord of the Rings project became the company’s most prominent investments, while Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark expanded Amazon's publishing relationship with major Asian developers in the genre.

However, following the closure of New World and the apparent cancellation of the LOTR MMO (even though new Amazon Game Studios boss Jeff Gattis insists nothing has been canceled ), it was clear that the company wanted to leave the MMO genre and focus on the IPs for which it has rights across various media, such as 007 and Tomb Raider , while also leveraging its streaming service Luna amidst the hardware component crisis .

About the author : With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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