Throne and Liberty Comes Home: NC Takes Over From Amazon Worldwide

Two years ago, Throne and Liberty arrived in the West with a big partner, a big marketing push and a Steam peak that put it among 2024's most-played launches. This week it starts a new chapter with no partner at all. The Korean company that made it is now running it, everywhere.

On November 10, 2026, NC (the company formerly called NCSOFT) officially took over global publishing of Throne and Liberty from Amazon Game Studios. NC and its MMORPG studio FirstSpark Games now handle publishing, development and live service under what they call a single global service model. Western transfer maintenance began on November 10, Pacific time, and the game's first official broadcast under NC, the "Homecoming Livestream", aired on November 12 at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC) on Twitch and YouTube.

What changes, and what doesn't

For players, the important line is short: nothing you own goes away. NC says players on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and PURPLE (NC's own PC platform) keep their accounts, characters, items, progression and previous purchases, with no disruption to play.

What changes is who you are talking to. Publishing, development and community teams now sit under one roof, which NC says should mean faster decisions and closer contact. It has promised:

• the return of in-game events, Discord activities and creator programmes;
• more ways to send feedback, gathered from all regions and platforms over the coming months to guide gameplay changes.

FirstSpark CEO Moonyoung Choi put it simply when the deal was announced in August: taking "a more direct role in global publishing makes so much sense for us."

A welcome-back gift

Anyone who logs in between November 11 and December 16, 2026 gets one free Character Boost Ticket per account. It works on new or existing characters and grants a full set of level 75 gear instantly after a short tutorial. It is a clear invitation to lapsed players: come back, skip the catch-up, see what changed.

How we got here

Throne and Liberty launched in Korea on December 7, 2023, and went global on October 1, 2024, in the Americas, Europe and Japan, published by Amazon. The Western launch was strong:

• More than 3 million new players in its first week, according to Amazon.
• A Steam peak of 336,300 concurrent players on October 6, 2024, according to SteamDB data reported at the time.
• An average critic score of 75, while Steam user reviews started at "Mixed".

Its first year added a new weapon in The Call of the Spear, a new continent in The Wilds of Talandre, and Solisium's Awakening, which brought the Orb weapon and large-scale player housing.

Why Amazon stepped away

The handover is part of a bigger retreat. In August, Amazon said it would stop publishing both Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark, after ending active development on its own New World: Aeternum at the end of 2025. Lost Ark goes back to its developer, Smilegate, in early 2027 (the full Amazon story).

What to watch

The Homecoming stream is the first test of NC's promises. Players will watch for a roadmap, a fix list and whether NC brings Korean and global content closer together. WGC's take: Korean studios running their own games abroad is becoming the norm, from AION 2 on Steam to ArcheAge Chronicles. If NC listens as closely as it says it will, losing Amazon could be the best thing to happen to Throne and Liberty since launch.