Smilegate will swoop in to save Lost Ark's western servers in 2027, as Amazon continues its retreat from MMO development
- On Wednesday, Amazon announced it will transfer live Western operations for Lost Ark to developer Smilegate in early 2027, consolidating control under the original developer who already manages all other global servers.
- Amazon will halt "a significant amount" of its work on first-party AAA games, "specifically around MMOs," shifting strategy and transitioning Throne and Liberty to FirstSpark Games in Q4 2026.
- The 12-month Crystalline Plus subscription has been removed from the in-game store, with officials stating, "We recommend not purchasing new long-term subscriptions." Character progression and account data will remain intact after the transition.
- Players must accept new terms of service from Smilegate, while official Spanish language support ends in the October 2026 update and miscellaneous data including chat history will be wiped.
- Amazon's gaming strategy now prioritizes its Luna cloud service, mobile party games, and franchises like James Bond and Tomb Raider, following earlier service closures for New World as part of its retreat from MMO development.
29 Articles
29 Articles
NCSoft will transition the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "Throne and Liberty (TL)," which it had been providing under a publishing contract with Amazon Game Studios, to self-publish within the year. On the 13th, NCSoft stated, "We plan to directly operate the global service of TL to consistently provide stable service to global users and to strengthen the linkage between development and service operations."
Amazon Game Studios Divests MMOs ‘Lost Ark,’ ‘Throne and Liberty’ in Strategy Shift
Amazon Game Studios will return Western territory publishing responsibilities for “Throne and Liberty” and “Lost Ark” to game developers NC and Smilegate, respectively, amid the company’s pivot away from massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). “As part of our continued strategic evolution, we have made the decision to transition live operations of ‘Lost Ark’ and ‘Throne […]
Amazon has just ghosted its MMOs in its latest move to give up on gaming
Amazon Game Studios is slowly running out of games to manage as the company continues downsizing its scope by cutting off MMOs altogether. Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark, to whom Amazon served as a publisher and helped bring them over to Western countries, will no longer be part of its portfolio. And neither will any other MMO, since its own, New World: Aeternum, is going offline on January 31st, 2027. As Polygon writes, Amazon Game Studios is …
Amazon gets out of the MMO game
Amazon is fully stepping back from MMOs. After saying last year that it would be halting "a significant amount" of its work on first-party AAA games, "specifically around MMOs," Amazon will be handing over live operations of Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark in the West to other companies, according to announcements on Wednesday. Throne and Liberty will be taken over by FirstSpark Games and NC in Q4 2026. Lost Ark will be run by Smilegate starting…
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