THRONE AND LIBERTY celebrates its one-year anniversary

One year ago on October 1, 2024, the teams at FirstSpark Games and Amazon Games brought Throne and Liberty to all-new regions, including North and South America, Europe, and Japan. This moment brought the game to new heights, and now, it celebrates it's one-year anniversary.

The excitement from Western players was noticeable immediately, as THRONE AND LIBERTY reached 3 million new players within its first week and had a surge of players around the world. From that fast start, things have yet to slow down.

“At launch, the game reached 330,000 concurrent users on Steam, receiving far more global attention than we had expected,” says Moonyoung Choi, Head of Division at FirstSpark Games. “We believe this success was largely driven by the extensive overhaul of core gameplay elements such as combat mechanics and controls in preparation for the global release.”

Please see below for a look back on the first year of Throne and Liberty. For the full anniversary event information, check out the blog post here!

“The evolution has been incredible, honestly,” says Daniel Lafuente, Globalization Design Manager at Amazon Games. “The biggest change is simply the sheer amount of content available now. Our team's delivery speed has been impressive. In just our first year, we've launched a major expansion with a brand new territory, increased the level cap, added solo dungeons, delivered 13 new dungeons, introduced a raid, brought in two new weapons, implemented housing, created multiple new PvP modes, and ran tons of seasonal events — plus so much more.”

Content updates have been consistently arriving to the game during the past year, highlighted by major releases including The Call of the Spear, which introduced a new weapon and playstyle, The Wilds of Talandre, which added a massive new continent for players to explore, and Solisium’s Awakening — the game’s biggest content drop to date, which introduced the new Orb weapon and a massive player housing feature. And all of these updates added much more content to the game in addition to the highlighted features. Whether it was large content drops or smaller updates, THRONE AND LIBERTY players have been treated to a steady flow of new game modes, zones, weapons, features, quality-of-life upgrades, and more.

All of these updates are driven by a player-first approach, where the teams listen to what the community wants and steers the game in that direction. That direction extends all the way to foundational changes in how the game is played. The teams have refined their approach to the core gameplay loop based on player feedback. Additionally, evergreen catch-up systems for new and returning players were created, which were also inspired by community input, as well as updates to content that make it feel more rewarding for all players.

“Our guiding principle has always been that a game must deliver joy and satisfaction to its players, and we have consistently reflected player feedback in our development decisions,” says Choi. “The recently updated battleground and housing features are prime examples of content shaped directly by community input.”

“Look, we're not always perfect, but we genuinely try to stay connected with our players, really listen to their pain points, and take action on them as best we can. When we nail those changes and see the positive response — that's incredibly rewarding.”

Not always being perfect means that there are lessons to be learned, and learnings to apply... a practice that the teams at FirstSpark Games and Amazon Games have implemented to great effect. Service stability and optimization are paramount in a large-scale live game like THRONE AND LIBERTY, and something that the teams remain focused on improving with every update.

“We’re concentrating our engineering efforts on reducing unpleasant experiences caused by bugs and desync issues, and our September update focused heavily on improvements in these areas," says Choi. "We also saw cases where outcomes diverged from our design intent — especially in content shipped on fast iteration cycles. Going forward, we’ll broaden and deepen internal testing and validation so the intended fun lands exactly as designed, taking a more deliberate approach to ensure quality.“

That dedication to quality, paired with the past year of working with the THRONE AND LIBERTY community on evolving the game, has yielded some interesting moments and some impressive stats. “My favorite moment has to be our raid release,” says Lafuente. “We managed to launch the raid across all regions globally, and watching teams from around the world compete to be among the first to defeat Calanthia was absolutely thrilling. There was so much hard work that went into making that simultaneous release happen, and it paid off beautifully.”

As the teams at FirstSpark Games and Amazon Games reflect on the past year of THRONE AND LIBERTY, there are several reasons to look ahead to the next year for the game. Building off of what was accomplished and learned from last year, both teams are excited about the future. “We have plenty of content in development that we’re not ready to share just yet,” says Choi. “One of them is a new region with its own climate, which we’ll be unveiling soon. This isn’t just about a bigger map, it’s also designed to deliver a broader range of experiences. Please look forward to the future updates for THRONE AND LIBERTY !”