Amazon Games Stops Running Lost Ark and Throne & Liberty Publishing Role

Amazon Games is stepping back from running two major Western MMORPGs, ending its operational role for Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty. The games won’t shut down—each title’s developer studio will take over the publishing duties in the regions where Amazon previously handled localization, communications, and player support.

Amazon Games ends its Western publishing role

1. On the Lost Ark website, Amazon Games confirmed it will stop overseeing Western operations that it has managed since February 11, 2022.
2. On the Throne and Liberty website, Amazon Games confirmed it will stop overseeing Western operations that it has managed since October 1, 2024.
3. For Lost Ark, Smilegate will assume the tasks Amazon Games previously handled—covering areas like localization, communications, and support.
4. For Throne and Liberty, FirstSpark Games (a NC subsidiary) will replace Amazon Games as the publisher responsible for worldwide operations.
5. Smilegate and FirstSpark Games both published details of the transition, warning that some items cannot be transferred during the handoff.
6. In Lost Ark, players will lose in-game mail and the discussion history as part of the migration limitations.
7. In the Lost Ark schedule, Smilegate takes over at the start of 2027.
8. In the Throne and Liberty schedule, FirstSpark Games takes over in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The move follows Amazon’s broader retreat from big-budget AAA

Amazon Games says it is continuing a strategy it began earlier in the decade, reducing its commitment to large-scale AAA releases. The decision is not being framed as a direct response to current player numbers for these two MMORPGs, but the article points to the original launch peaks as evidence of how impactful these games were at launch—then notes that their long-term performance has normalized.

• Lost Ark reached a peak of 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam at launch in 2022.
• Throne and Liberty launched with a peak of 336,300 concurrent players.

The operational pullback is presented as part of a wider sequence: Amazon Games’ exit from multiple projects after it announced the planned end of its own MMO, New World, in 2025. Since then, Amazon Games has reportedly dropped most of its remaining plans, including canceling development on an MMO set in The Lord of the Rings.

What’s next for Amazon Games

With its focus shifting away from major game production, Amazon Games’ current activity is described as centered on its cloud platform, Amazon Luna, alongside tie-in projects connected to Prime Video. The article also notes that upcoming Tomb Raider titles—Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst—are positioned to release in parallel with the arrival of a new series featuring Sophie Turner.