On August 19th Amazon announced an exclusive publishing agreement with Smilegate RPG. No details were given about the specific title Smilegate would be developing for Amazon, but recent rumblings have speculated Lost Ark would be the title headed to North America.
In the announcement, Amazon explains their reasoning for working alongside Smilegate RPG, with Amazon Games Vice President Christoph Hartman stating:
“Amazon Games is committed to bringing our customers the most engaging game experiences, both through our own internal development teams and from the very best external development studios around the world, Smilegate has a strong track record of creating big games that players love, built to offer years of enjoyment — exactly the type of best-in-class, living, growing online games we want to bring our customers.”
Smilegate RPG acknowledged that they would be bringing one of their triple A titles to the west, further stoking the fire of Lost Ark being the title targeted for western audiences. Recently Lost Ark has been making its way across the globe with a Japanese Beta hitting earlier this year.
This wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve seen Smilegate pen a deal to bring Lost Ark and chances are high that this announcement is pointing towards an impending North American release, but until it is explicitly confirmed, Lost Ark headed to NA is just speculation.
