Throne and Liberty Developer NCSoft Takes Over Publishing from Amazon

Throne and Liberty’s western publishing duties are returning to developer NC, ending an operational partnership with Amazon Game Studios that began ahead of the MMORPG’s October 2024 release, according to coordinated corporate announcements issued on August 12, 2026. The South Korean studio, formerly known as NCSoft, will manage the game directly through its subsidiary FirstSpark Games, targeting a complete service migration by the fourth quarter of 2026. According to Amazon’s published transition FAQ, player accounts, characters, progression, and inventory will carry over without requiring a reinstallation across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and NC’s proprietary PURPLE platform.

Global Publishing Transition and Timeline

The upcoming transfer unwinds an agreement established on February 22, 2023, when Amazon Games and NCSoft announced plans to publish the free-to-play title across North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. According to NC’s official statement, the creator of the game is stepping into a direct operational role to support its future. FirstSpark Games CEO Moonyoung Choi noted in a press release that Amazon served as an excellent partner for the launch, but taking direct control of global publishing makes sense for the studio’s next chapter. Both companies confirmed that regular updates and bug fixes will continue as usual during the transition period, though major updates like the in-development Nix update may be held until the data migration concludes.

Account Data, Platform Integration, and Cross-Play

Player data and assets remain preserved across all platforms during the handover, according to the transition documentation provided by Amazon and NC. Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox users will keep their existing accounts, accessing the game by accepting NC’s new Terms of Service upon their first login following the migration. The game will also launch on PURPLE, NC’s PC platform, creating a unified global environment where players across PURPLE, Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation play together with cross-play intact. Cross-progression will function between Steam and PURPLE, but will not extend to other platform pairings. In-game currency balances, including Lucent, Loyalty Points, Sollant, and Ornate Coins, transfer over at their current values, while account enforcement history like bans and suspensions will also move to NC’s systems.

Guild Management and the Opt-Out Clause

Players retain the right to opt out of the data transfer at any point prior to transition day, according to Amazon’s FAQ. Choosing this option means characters, progression, and inventory will not carry over, and account data will be handled under Amazon’s standard retention policies. For active guilds, the migration includes specific succession rules if members or leaders opt out. Characters removed due to an opt-out will clear from guild rosters, leadership will pass via automatic succession if a guild leader opts out, and any guild losing all members will disband. Furthermore, characters and guilds left with duplicate names following the service integration will be renamed at random and issued a name-change ticket by the operator.

Amazon Games Portfolio Context

The publishing handover arrives amid a broader contraction of Amazon Game Studios’ external MMO and multiplayer portfolio. In January, Amazon announced the shutdown of New World: Aeternum following wider corporate layoffs and a reduction in big-budget MMO development. A month later, Amazon announced it would shut down the online multiplayer dungeon crawler King of Meat, developed by Glowmade, after it failed to find an audience. Reports in May also indicated that Amazon cancelled its planned Lord of the Rings MMO, which was being developed alongside Embracer Group and Middle Earth Enterprises.

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