Neowiz Confirms Lies of P Sequel And Two New RPG Projects

Lies of P has now sold over 4 million copies since launch, with the sequel sitting in vertical slice and Neowiz confirming two further Soulslike and narrative RPG projects underneath the franchise. The development update arrived in Neowiz's latest investor disclosure, alongside a separate Round8 Studio hiring push that lays out the publisher's internal AI roadmap in concrete terms.

Neowiz's Q1 2026 earnings report confirms the sequel is in full-scale development at the vertical slice step. A vertical slice is a small demonstrable build that represents what the full game will be like, used internally to anchor executive sign-off on direction. The same report details a separate Soulslike RPG codenamed Project Windi, directed by Kay Lee, who previously directed Vindictus at Nexon. Project Windi sits in prototype and was first mentioned in Neowiz's Q3 2025 deck. Project Rubicon, a narrative RPG directed by Buried Stars' Seungho Jin, has joined the Lies of P sequel in vertical slice. Neowiz has not confirmed setting, platform targets, or whether either of the two newer projects is set inside an existing IP or built as a new one.

The original Lies of P was released in September 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game hit 1 million sales in under a month and crossed the 4-million mark in March 2026. Round8 Studio built the project as a gothic Pinocchio reimagining set in Krat, a Belle Époque-inspired city sliding into a wave of puppet madness. The combat layered Soulslike timing onto a Weapon Assemble system that lets players mix blades and handles into custom configurations, with a "lying system" that ties narrative branches to dialogue choices. A November 2023 patch buffed base stats in early stages, made the Rising Dodge a default skill, and split glasses and hats into separate cosmetic slots, fixing dodge complaints that had carried over from the pre-release demo.

The sequel was first confirmed by director Choi Ji-won in a November 2023 Director's Letter video, which doubled as a thank-you to players for the one-million milestone. Choi said developing the DLC and working on the sequel were the studio's highest priorities at the time. He repeated the commitment in a late-2025 GamesRadar+ interview tied to Overture's Golden Joystick win, telling readers the studio's next new game won't disappoint them and framing Overture as having been treated almost as a sequel rather than a pure expansion.

"I'm so happy that I'm lost for words right. So we didn't just view it as just pure expansion, but almost as a sequel and a brand new project. You can expect the most fun that we can achieve within the game. Please stay tuned for it; we are working really hard, and I will not disappoint you at all."

— Choi Ji-won

I think the vertical slice milestone matters more than the studio's broader roadmap statements, since vertical slice is the first development stage where the sequel's specific mechanical and tonal pitch has to work in playable form rather than on slides.

The prequel DLC "Overture" launched during Summer Game Fest 2025 on June 6 at $29.99. The expansion is set during Krat's final days under the Puppet Madness and puts players in the role of the puppet Geppetto, with new bosses including a giant crocodile and weapons that include Wolverine-style claws. Neowiz pitched Overture at 15 to 20 hours of new content. The launch coincided with a free base-game update that added Butterfly's Guidance and Awakened Puppet difficulty modes, a Death March mode of consecutive boss fights with limited resources, and a Battle Memories feature that lets players refight defeated bosses at new difficulty levels. The expansion requires players to reach Chapter 9 of the base game and defeat the Corrupted Parade Master before using the Stargazer item in the Path of the Pilgrim. Carnival Gardens, a working carnival park, sits as the standout location, contrasting Krat's wider devastation with functional rides and mini-games.

In a January 2026 interview with Game Informer, Neowiz co-CEO Sean Kim said Overture had a material impact on base game sales, expanded the community, and solidified the foundation of what he called an emerging pillar franchise. He pointed to Overture's Best Game Expansion win at the Golden Joystick Awards and a separate Lenovo 3D Juego award as added validation. Kim declined to share a sequel release window, saying only that the Round8 team was excited about its work and fully focused on development.

The same conversation laid out a wider publishing position. Neowiz is internally developing more than five PC and console titles, with the Lies of P sequel sitting alongside Project Windi and Project Rubicon, and outside-studio publishing deals with Wolfeye and Zakazane. Kim said the publisher's development cycles begin with director-led creative pitches rather than genre planning, and that prospective projects are evaluated against market attractiveness, team capability, and long-term fanbase growth strategy. He named Shape of Dreams, the Lizard Smoothie debut Neowiz published, as a recent example of the publisher's narrative-driven third-party strategy paying off: the game sold 500,000 copies within two weeks of launch, a figure Neowiz reached out to Game Informer to correct after Kim initially cited a one-month window.

I see the simultaneous progress of three internal RPG projects as the more interesting signal in the earnings report, because it suggests Neowiz is positioning itself as a Korean alternative to FromSoftware's catalogue rather than treating Lies of P as a single hit.

The AI track sits underneath every Neowiz statement in 2026. Kim told Game Informer that Korea is one of the most active ChatGPT-using markets globally and that it is difficult to find a Korean game company today not using AI in some form. He said Neowiz uses AI to automate routine internal operations like test case processing and large-volume operational data analysis, freeing expert teams to focus on strategy work with development partners. He framed the technology as an internal productivity layer rather than a content generation pipeline.

The current Round8 Studio vacancy for an AI Creator role makes the strategy concrete. The position sits inside Art Team 2, which Round8 describes as the technical foundation that translates imagination into game-ready output. The studio is hiring for the following responsibilities:

• Creating concept drafts for characters and backgrounds and expanding variations using Stable Diffusion (Automatic1111 or ComfyUI), Midjourney, and similar tools
• AI-based texturing, modeling assistance via image-to-3D technology, and asset creation
• Integrating AI tools into existing art workflows to reduce production time and build an efficient AI art pipeline
• Training custom AI models and building libraries optimised for the project's art style using LoRA, ControlNet, and similar techniques
• Post-processing including in-painting and out-painting, plus high-resolution upscaling of AI outputs to ship-ready quality
• Tracking generative AI trends and providing internal tool guides for staff artists

Required software lists Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Photoshop. Preferred candidates have hands-on experience in traditional 2D concept art or 3D modeling in Blender or ZBrush, a strong understanding of AI ethics and copyright law, and direct experience deploying AI assets inside Unity or Unreal Engine. The role is permanent with a three-month probationary period, based at Neowiz headquarters in Pangyo, South Korea. Round8 explicitly notes it will reject applicants who do not play or enjoy games.

The job description clarifies what Neowiz means when it talks about AI in internal communications. The role is not creative direction or narrative generation. It is pipeline engineering, with the AI Creator expected to build a workflow that lets human artists ship faster rather than replace them. The training and LoRA work points to Round8 wanting project-specific style models for the Lies of P universe rather than relying on off-the-shelf outputs from public generators.

Eurogamer's three-star review of the original Lies of P said the game had strong foundations in its edgy tone and tweaked weapons but was unlikely to beat the originals at their own game. The review predates Overture, the sequel announcement, and Project Windi's reveal. The next two Neowiz earnings cycles will indicate whether the sequel and Project Windi close that gap, since vertical slice and prototype builds have to convert into alpha and beta milestones before either project is realistically within 18 months of launch.

For now, the Lies of P sequel sits in vertical slice. Project Windi is in prototype. Project Rubicon is in vertical slice alongside the sequel. Neowiz has not committed to release windows for any of the three. The publisher's next financial report is expected in August 2026, and is likely to confirm whether any of the three has shifted development phase since.