Amazon is bringing another big Korean MMO to the West

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As Amazon Games works to tweak, tune, and dig for a bigger audience for New World, it's also continuing to enter into publishing agreements with other companies on delivering competing MMOs. The most recent addition to that lineup is NCSoft's upcoming Throne and Liberty, which will be published in North and South America, Europe, and Japan—everywhere but Korea, basically—by Amazon.

"NCSoft has created some of the most popular and longest-running online games in the world, so it’s no surprise that Throne and Liberty is among today’s most anticipated MMOs," Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann said. "Publishing games that live and grow over time remains a critical piece of our strategy, and delivering games of the highest quality from the world’s most talented developers is one of the cornerstones of our business.

"The last year has taught us a great deal about publishing and managing a successful live-service game on a global scale, and we’re ready to bring Throne and Liberty players an incredible experience at launch."

Throne and Liberty promises "story-driven adventure and action combat" with both PvP and PvE action in a world of "constantly shifting geographical and environmental features that change the course of play." Players will have the ability to transform into animals that will enable them to fly or explore the oceans, and trigger environmental effects like eclipses and storms that can turn the tide of battles.

What I find really interesting about Throne and Liberty is it's actually been around for a very long time, but under a different name. Elderly gamers may have faint, fuzzy memories of an MMO called Lineage, released by NCSoft in 1998, and Throne and Liberty was originally intended as a new game in that series called Lineage Eternal, which was announced in 2011. But development struggled, and in 2022 NCSoft scrapped the Lineage connection entirely and went with something new.

Also interesting is that while Amazon is still trying to find its stride with New World, it seems to be doing quite well as a publisher of other companies' games: Throne and Liberty will be the second big Korean MMO it's brought to the West, alongside Smilegate's MMO Lost Ark; it's also publishing Bandai Namco's action-RPG Blue Protocol and the next Tomb Raider game.

Throne and Liberty doesn't have a release date at this point, but you can get a closer look at what it's all about at tl.plaync.com, and have a look at some screens below.

Throne and Liberty screenshot — (Image credit: NCSoft)

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.