Amazon Exits MMO Publishing, Hands Lost Ark and Throne & Liberty Back to Developers

Amazon Game Studios is ending its MMO publishing business. Throne & Liberty's Western live operations transfer to developer FirstSpark Games and publisher NCSoft in Q4 2026; Lost Ark moves to Smilegate in early 2027. Amazon's in-house MMO, New World, shuts down permanently on 31 January 2027. The pullback follows Amazon's October 2025 halt of first-party AAA MMO development.