Amazon lets go of Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty: both MMOs return to their developers

Amazon Game Studios is out of the MMO publishing business in the West. Throne and Liberty moves to FirstSpark Games / NC during Q4 2026, and Lost Ark goes back to Smilegate in early 2027. Neither game shuts down: the servers stay up and change hands.

The Lost Ark notice lands two weeks before the merge that turns twelve western servers into five, a plan the same Amazon team laid out in early August.

In both games, characters, progression, inventory and currency balances (Royal Crystals and gold in Arkesia, Lucent and Sollant in Solisium) move to the new operator automatically, along with your penalty history. Nothing is required on your end, per the transition page, but there is a window to refuse.

Anyone who takes that opt-out keeps nothing: characters and progress stay behind and you start over. In Throne and Liberty the window runs until transition day itself, and using it requires an active Amazon Games ID with your platform account linked to it.

Throne and Liberty keeps its servers and its Steam, PlayStation and Xbox crossplay. NC adds its PURPLE launcher, with cross-progression only between Steam and PURPLE, and asks players to accept its terms of service on the first login after the handover, according to its own post.

Lost Ark leaves things behind: in-game mail, chat logs, guild member nicknames and the memos on your friends list and stronghold do not make the trip. The October 2026 update also removes Spanish support; from then on the client is English-only.

On the wallet side, Crystalline Aura subscriptions leave Steam on August 26, 2026, and Royal Crystal purchases stop before the handover, with no date given yet. Amazon states it will not issue refunds; whatever policy applies afterwards is Smilegate's to set.