Amazon's venture into publishing major MMOs in Western markets is drawing to a close, with the company announcing it will end its publishing agreements for both Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty. The games themselves will continue to be available, however, as their original developers are set to resume publishing duties in the West.
NCSoft will take over publishing responsibilities for Throne and Liberty in Western markets around the end of 2026. Smilegate will assume the same role for Lost Ark in early 2027. Details regarding the transition for Throne and Liberty are still being finalized, with further announcements expected closer to the handover date. For Lost Ark, specific user data, including in-game mail, friends list memos and group names, guild member nicknames and memos, and chat messages and history, will not transfer to the new publishing arrangement.
Both titles will continue to operate as normal and will receive regular content updates leading up to the publisher change. Firespark Games, the developer of Throne and Liberty, has indicated that major updates might be postponed until after the transition to ensure a smoother handover.
This move marks a significant reduction in Amazon's gaming ambitions. The company previously scaled back its own large-scale MMO development, shelving its homegrown title New World in 2025 as part of a broader shift away from big-budget projects, which also led to layoffs. Despite this, Amazon had continued to publish externally developed MMOs in the West. Reports of potential changes for Lost Ark began earlier this year following layoffs that impacted Amazon's dedicated Lost Ark team, making this publisher shift a likely outcome.