Amazon Abandons MMO Efforts Amid Shift to Cloud Gaming

Amazon has abandoned its efforts in the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game genre. The company's decision comes after announcing last year that it would halt work on 'a significant amount' of first-party AAA games, specifically MMOs. As a result, Amazon will be transferring live operations of Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark to other companies.

The new operators for Throne and Liberty will be FirstSpark Games and NC, who will take over in Q4 2026. Meanwhile, Smilegate will run the live operations of Lost Ark starting in early 2027. Amazon's decision to step away from MMOs has already led to the developers of New World: Aeternum announcing plans to stop offering new content updates.

New World: Aeternum players can no longer purchase the game as of January, and it will be taken offline on January 31st, 2027. This move aligns with Amazon's current gaming strategy, which focuses more on its Luna cloud gaming service and party games that integrate with other Amazon franchises.