Lost Ark, the Korean MMO picked up by Amazon Games, is no longer coming this fall
A closed beta is on the way
Lost Ark has been delayed to early 2022 as the developers of its Western version respond to both alpha feedback and recent changes to the MMO's Korean counterpart.
Amazon Games first revealed it had taken up Lost Ark with an E3 2021 announcement in June, at the time slotting it in for a fall 2021 release window. Lost Ark is now targeting a Western release window of early 2022, according to an announcement given on its official website.
"While delving into all of the great feedback and data generated by our Alpha and reviewing recent changes to the Korean version that we want to include in our release, we discovered a lot more work that will be needed to launch Lost Ark at the high quality bar our players deserve," the developers wrote. "As players have been waiting for so long, we want to take the time to do it right while also ensuring we look after the wellness of our hardworking Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG teams."
The delay also means a lot more time to test the game, and prospective players will get another chance to try Lost Ark out with a closed beta from November 4 to 9. You will be guaranteed access to the beta if you pick up a Lost Ark Founder's Pack on the store (Lost Ark will be free-to-play upon launch), or you can sign up for tester consideration by itself.
That other Amazon Studios MMO, New World, was also recently delayed, though only by a month.
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I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.