Often when we get a lengthy blog post titled along the lines of 'update on the future', it coincides with an announcement of the project being sunset, with development soon being stopped and eventual plans for the game to be shut down entirely too. For the case of Lost Ark, while you may immediately think the game is facing the same fate, this major news is actually much more positive.
It has been revealed Amazon Game Studios is stepping back from supporting Lost Ark and is instead handing the project back to the original developers of Smilegate, with this specifically affecting the west. This isn't a sunsetting news, as rather Amazon Game Studios is simply concluding its "live service operations" for the game, with the title set to be handed "back to the developers."
For those curious, the blog post explains "the adventure continues" and that no changes are expected to made to players' Steam accounts, or "your characters, progression or inventory, your platform (Steam), your game data and entitlements, your wallet balances or access to the game itself" unless a player opts out of course. What is changing is the following.
"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)."
We're told the transition will occur in early 2027 and then between now and this imprecise date, Lost Ark will continue to operate as an Amazon Game Studios project. When the day does arrive, there will be a period of downtime as the transition is made, wherein after this date, in-game mail, friends list memos and group names, blacklist memos, guild member nicknames and memos, stronghold gift messages and quiz data, and chat message and history will all be wiped. So if you have anything important in any of these areas, you have a few months to move it out of these features.
