Amazon MMO operations are being wound down in stages: Amazon Games will transfer Western live operations for Throne and Liberty to FirstSpark Games and NC in the fourth quarter of 2026, then hand Lost Ark to Smilegate in early 2027. The games are expected to continue. What changes is the company responsible for their Western live services.
The separate announcements, reported by The Verge and Video Games Chronicle, mark a narrower but consequential retreat from Amazon’s MMO business. Amazon is not switching either game off now, and neither handoff has an exact public date beyond those windows.
What changes for Lost Ark players?
Smilegate will take over Lost Ark in the West in early 2027. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that characters, progression, inventory, game data, entitlements and wallet balances are expected to transfer. Steam accounts, purchases and items are also expected to remain, according to Wccftech.
Some account history will not make the trip. Chat logs, in-game mail, friends-list memos and group names are among the data that will be lost in the move, Rock Paper Shotgun reported. Wccftech also listed other player-written material, including blacklist notes, guild-member nicknames and stronghold gift messages, as non-transferable.
Subscriptions are another wrinkle. Active subscriptions will be cancelled before the transition with notice, Rock Paper Shotgun reported, and Amazon has stopped selling the 12-month subscription. The handling of unused prepaid time was still being finalized with Smilegate, according to that report.
Smilegate has also said it aims to reduce the timing gap between Korean and global updates gradually, rather than force the two versions into sync immediately, Rock Paper Shotgun reported.
What changes for Throne and Liberty players?
Throne and Liberty will move to FirstSpark Games and NC during the fourth quarter of 2026. The transition appears set to preserve more of a player’s account: characters, progression, inventory, entitlements, game data, regions, realms and platform access are expected to carry over unless a player opts out, according to Wccftech.
Cross-play across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox is expected to continue. NC plans to add its PURPLE platform as another way to access the game, though Wccftech reported that cross-progression will apply between Steam and PURPLE, not other platforms. Amazon has warned that larger releases could slip while data is migrated; routine updates and bug fixes are expected to continue.
Amazon’s earlier MMO pullback
In October 2025, Amazon said it would halt a significant amount of first-party AAA game development work focused on MMOs, a decision reported by Kotaku and Video Games Chronicle. Its own MMO, New World: Aeternum, stopped receiving new content updates and is scheduled to go offline on January 31, 2027, The Verge reported.
Reports have also described Amazon’s planned Lord of the Rings MMO as cancelled, but that status remains less settled in the available reporting. Wccftech reported that Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis said the company still had a Middle-earth game in development, without describing it as an MMO.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
