{"id":5812,"date":"2026-08-12T22:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:06:21","slug":"amazon-game-studios-divests-mmos-lost-ark-throne-and-liberty-in-strategy-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5812","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Game Studios Divests MMOs \u2018Lost Ark,\u2019 \u2018Throne and Liberty\u2019 in Strategy Shift"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\nAmazon Game Studios will return Western territory publishing responsibilities for \u201cThrone and Liberty\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cLost Ark\u201d to game developers NC and Smilegate, respectively, amid the company\u2019s pivot away from massively multiplayer online games (MMOs).<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5810\">Bob Chapek, Who Was Ousted as Disney\u2019s CEO, Pens Memoir in Which He Wonders if He Became \u2018The Scapegoat\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cAs part of our continued strategic evolution, we have made the decision to transition live operations of \u2018Lost Ark\u2019 and \u2018Throne and Liberty\u2019 back to their respective development studios. We have tremendous respect for the teams at Smilegate and NC, the worlds they\u2019ve built and the passionate communities that have grown around these games,\u201d Amazon Game Studios said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of what we accomplished together and are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nAmazon\u2019s games division faced a significant number of layoffs last October amid overall company cuts and strategy shifts across the business, seeing the elimination of 14,000 corporate employees. The choice to divest \u201cThrone and Liberty\u201d and \u201cLost Ark\u201d comes after Amazon has already indicated its plans to pivot from investing more into the MMO space. The internal focus now is on already planned AAA titles, like the upcoming \u201cTomb Raider\u201d games, and expanding Amazon\u2019s cloud gaming service Luna through the studio\u2019s \u201cgame night\u201d-style party games and its licensed-title business.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAccording to Amazon, players of both games will not be directly affected, as data will directly transfer to the video game developers. However, Amazon Game Studios announced in-game mail, friends list memos, blacklist memos, guild member nicknames, stronghold gift messages and chat history will not transfer over for \u201cLost Ark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5808\">Walt Disney Studios Promotes Melissa Stone to Publicity Chief<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tAccounts will be transferred over automatically, with \u201cThrone and Liberty\u201d beginning later this year and \u201cLost Ark\u201d beginning early 2027. Active subscriptions will be canceled prior to the transition, but existing balances will carry over. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tBoth Smilegate and NC, which operates under its subsidiary FirstSpark Games, originally created their respective games and will continue their development.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThere may be downtime during the transition, which Amazon Game Studios will communicate as developments continue. Additional information can be found on the \u201cThrone and Liberty\u201d and \u201cLost Ark\u201d community pages. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5806\">\u2018Chicago PD\u2019s\u2019 Jesse Lee Soffer, Matt Olmstead to Develop \u2018Strike Force\u2019 Drama at CBS, Jerry Bruckheimer to Produce<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon Game Studios is divesting MMOs \u201cThrone and Liberty\u201d\u00a0and \u201cLost Ark\u201d to game developers NC and Smilegate amid a strategy shift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[4530,3025,4531,4532],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-amazon-game-studios","tag-amazon-games","tag-lost-ark","tag-throne-and-liberty"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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