Amazon Game Studios to Exit Lost Ark in Early 2027, Smilegate Takes Over
Amazon Game Studios has announced it will end its live service operations of Lost Ark in the West in early 2027, with original developer Smilegate stepping in to take over going forward.
The announcement, posted to the Lost Ark Steam community on August 12, 2026, frames the transition as a positive development for players — describing it as returning the game to the people who built it.
What changed
- Amazon Game Studios will cease Western live service operations in early 2027
- Smilegate will assume control of the game's ongoing operation in the West
- The game will continue running; this is a handover, not a shutdown
- Amazon cites nearly five years of shared service as context for the transition
- Players are directed to an official site for further transition details (not reproduced in the source)
Amazon's statement characterizes the move as handing the game "back to the developers," noting that Smilegate already supports Lost Ark in other regions. No specifics about what, if anything, changes for players at the moment of transition — billing, regional servers, account data — are addressed in the announcement.
For a game that has run under a third-party Western publisher since launch, the shift means its long-term continuity now rests directly with the studio that created it.