Following a round of layoffs and the apparent cancellation of an in-progress Lord of the Rings MMO, Amazon has officially cancelled active development of both Throne of Liberty and Lost Ark, announcing that it would hand off server management to each game's respective dev team. This is only Amazon's latest move in what was previously revealed to be a shift in strategy away from game development.

This means that Throne of Liberty will be fully in the hands of NCSoft's Western division, FirstSpark Games, and Lost Ark will be handed over to Smilegate. Lost Ark is expected to transition to its new management in early 2027, while Throne of Liberty will move over in Q4 2026, although no specific dates have been set. From a player perspective, there will be changes, but both studios have promised to minimize interruptions.In the case of both Throne of Liberty and Lost Ark, player accounts will remain the same, and in the case of Throne of Liberty, all account history, premium currency, and even account bans, will be carried over. It's a little less cut-and-dry when it comes to Lost Ark, and players will lose some in-game content in the transfer from Amazon Games to Smilegate:

The following will transfer: all preset names (gear, gem, skin, skill, etc.), ship names, stronghold slot/playlist names, map and combat memos, chat macros, NPC renames, and game progression data.

The following player data will not be included in the transition:

• In-game mail (titles and body content)
• Friends list memos and group names
• Blacklist memos
• Guild member nicknames and memos
• Stronghold gift messages and quiz data
• Chat message and chat history

Players can also opt out of the account transfer for both Lost Ark and Throne of Liberty, but that obviously means those players opting out will no longer be able to access their accounts.

Smilegate has confirmed that, in the case of Lost Ark, the transition also means that players will have access to content sooner than previously. The studio's end goal is to bring the Western version of the game in-line with the Korean cadence. Although it admits that this may introduce new issues, it argues that the faster content cadence will make the game more exciting, especially when it comes to raids, since players will be tackling challenges and finding the best way to conquer events and solve problems at the same time instead of months later, when the solutions and best strategies are already known.