Amazon Is Giving Up Publishing Two Big Online Games
Amazon will no longer publish the online games Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty in western markets. NCSOFT (NC) will take over publishing for Throne and Liberty starting in late 2026, while Smilegate will take control of Lost Ark in early 2027 (Engadget).
In the game world, a publisher is the company that handles distribution, servers, customer support, and marketing — not necessarily the company that made the game. When a publisher changes hands, players can sometimes lose access to parts of their accounts.
Both games will stay online for existing players during and after the switch. For Throne and Liberty, NC subsidiary FireSpark Games confirmed that characters and in-game currency should carry over. The studio is still deciding whether items listed for sale on the in-game Auction House will transfer. Lost Ark players face a harder cut: the game's official blog states that access to in-game mail and chat history will be lost (Engadget).
The handoffs cap a broader retreat from online games for Amazon. The company confirmed in May 2026 that it had ended development on a separate Lord of the Rings game, and New World: Aeternum is set to shut down on January 31, 2027. Amazon had announced plans to wind down New World: Aeternum in October 2025 amid mass layoffs. Amazon Games is now shifting its focus toward titles such as Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (Polygon.
For the games themselves, new content is still coming despite the publisher changes. Lost Ark's August update introduces the Kazeros Raid: Act 2 Extreme and the Panda World Avatar collection. Lost Ark content will also be consolidated in two phases beginning August 26. Throne and Liberty is set to receive the free expansion "Wilds of Talandre" on March 6, following its anniversary event that ran from October 2 to October 15, 2025.
The broader context here is a familiar one for any company that sits between a game's developer and its players. Over the years, I have watched my own kids invest hundreds of hours into game ecosystems tied to specific companies, only to face abrupt migrations when business deals or priorities shift. The friction of moving accounts, losing some data, and not knowing what comes next is not unique to Amazon, but it piles up when a company pulls back from an entire category of games. In this author's view, Amazon's pivot away from online games reflects the cost and effort of keeping these games running — they need constant updates, language translations for different regions, and steady server spending, all without a guarantee that players will stick around long-term.
What this ultimately enables is a return of control to the original developers. NC and Smilegate getting direct oversight of their franchises in western markets means they can plan content and monetization without a middleman. That may make long-term development smoother, even if the immediate transition introduces friction for players. For the technology teams inside these studios, reclaiming publishing rights also means taking on the operational burden of running regional servers, handling customer support, and migrating player accounts — a substantial effort for any live online game.
