Lost Ark’s Western service will move from Amazon to Smilegate in early 2027

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Amazon Game Studios will stop operating Lost Ark in the West in early 2027, with developer Smilegate taking over publishing and live service duties directly. The game is not shutting down, and Amazon says Lost Ark will remain playable on Steam through the transition.

According to the official announcement, characters, progression, inventory, purchases, entitlements, and wallet balances will transfer automatically unless players opt out. After the handoff, players will need to link their Steam account to Smilegate’s systems during a first-login flow and accept Smilegate’s Terms of Service.

  • The transition is planned for early 2027, with a maintenance window on the handoff date.
  • The opt-out window opened August 12 and will close before the transition. Opting out means your account data won’t move to Smilegate.
  • Steam access stays in place. Amazon says players won’t need to reinstall or repurchase the game.
  • Royal Crystals, Blue Crystals, Gold, and Silver balances are set to transfer in full.
  • Some data won’t transfer, including in-game mail text, chat history, friends list memos, blacklist memos, guild memos, and stronghold gift messages.
  • Spanish language support will be removed with the October 2026 update. After that, the Western version will be English only.

Amazon will keep running Lost Ark until the transition, including content updates, events, and support. Premium currency purchases and related exchange features will be disabled closer to the handoff, though Amazon hasn’t given an exact date yet. Some Steam items, including Crystalline Aura subscriptions, T4 Founder’s Packs, and the Abyssal Support Pack, are being removed from Steam on August 26.

After the switch, Smilegate will handle customer support, the in-game store, refund policy, community channels, and the official website. Amazon says the playlostark.com domain will also move to Smilegate after the transition.