Amazon Ending Lost Ark Support but Smilegate Will Keep It Alive
News Lost Ark Written by Don ParsonsPublished: August 12, 2026 9:47 AMAmazon continues its retreat from MMO games with an announcement today that they will be ending their support for Lost Ark in early 2027.Originally…
Written by Don Parsons
Published: August 12, 2026 9:47 AM
Amazon continues its retreat from MMO games with an announcement today that they will be ending their support for Lost Ark in early 2027.
Originally released in Korea in 2019 by Smilegate, Amazon Games brought Lost Ark to the west in 2022 as part of a push into games, and specifically MMORPGs, as also seen with New World. Now, with New World is dead, the publisher is retreating from Lost Ark, but it will avoid the fate of Amazon's homegrown MMORPG.
Smilegate Rescues Lost Ark's Worldwide Release
Starting in early 2027, original Lost Ark developer Smilegate is going to take over the publishing and support of Lost Ark worldwide. This will involve transfers of data to the Korean developer, but all characters and almost all player information will make the leap as well, making life easy on players. According to the Lost Ark team a quick overview of what changes with this publisher and support switch:
No changes will be made to your Steam account, your characters, progression or inventory, your platform (Steam), your game data and entitlements, your wallet balances or access to the game itself, unless you opt out. Things that are changing include the publisher, customer support provider, in-game store operator, refund policy for purchases made after the transition and the Terms of Service (all players will be asked to access new ToS from Smilegate).
In particular they emphasize the following will all transfer:
- All gear, gems, skin, skills, etc and names
- Game Progression
- Ship Names
- Stronghold slot names
- Map and combat memos
- Chat Micros
What won't make the cross is largely related to player to player contact, and here's a brief list:
- In-game mail
- Friend list memos and group names
- Blacklist memos
- Guild member nicknames
- Stronghold gift messages and quiz data
- Chat message and chat history
If you have items in your mail you want to keep, they urge you to claim them now.
If you don't want your data transferred to Smilegate, that is also possible, with an opt out option available until November 10th. If you opt out, you will lose your progress, characters, and all data currently saved by Lost Ark.
Don Parsons | Senior WriterA longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don
More Info About This Game Learn More About Lost Ark Game Page Lost Ark Developer Smilegate Entertainment Publisher Amazon Games Platforms PC Release Date February 11, 2022 (Calendar) Genre Action RPG, MMO, RPG Purchase (Some links may be affiliated) Steam