Amazon Game Studios gives Lost Ark and Throne & Liberty back to their studios to run, ending its MMO presence

Amazon Game Studios may have taken the last major step in its move away from MMO investment, after handing back its two existing MMOs to their studios.

Lost Ark was released on PC in 2022, while Throne and Liberty was released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2024. Both games were published by Amazon Games in the West.

Amazon has now posted messages to both games’ players, however, explaining to them that it will no longer be operating the games in the future.

A message posted to Throne and Liberty players says that Amazon “will will transition live operations of Throne and Liberty in the West” to developer FirstSpark Games and the game’s South Korean publisher, NC at some point in Q4.

A similar message posted to Lost Ark players says ” Amazon Game Studios will end its live service operations of Lost Ark, with Smilegate taking over going forward” at some point in early 2027.

Both statements include the same paragraph, which reads: “We are excited about the future of [Throne and Liberty / Lost Ark] and feel this is a positive outcome for the game’s community, as we are handing the game back to the developers.

“This way, their passion for [Throne and Liberty / Lost Ark] can continue to be realized, and players can continue their adventures in the world of ]Solisium / Arkesia].”

While both statements say the handover transition will be handled as smoothly as possible, FAQs have been provided on the Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark sites, telling players exactly what will and won’t be retained during the move.

The announcement appears to be the last notable move in Amazon’s decision to step away from the MMO genre.

Last year, following a huge round of layoffs across the entirety of Amazon said to have affected at least 14,000 jobs, a significant number of people at Amazon Games Orange County were laid off, resulting in the announcement that its MMO New World would no longer be receiving updates but would continue to run throughout 2026.

It was later confirmed that New World will go offline permanently on January 31, 2027. With the decision to hand Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty to their developers, this now means Amazon will no longer have any active MMOs.

In October 2025 the company also said it had “made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs – within Amazon Game Studios”.

The news led to reports that its planned Lord of the Rings MMO had also been cancelled.