Development and Release
Cinder City is a brand-new original property developed by BigFire Games, a studio under NCSOFT, and published by NCSOFT. The project is led by Jaehyun Bae,...
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Cinder City is a brand-new original property developed by BigFire Games, a wholly owned NCSOFT studio, and published by NCSOFT. Direction sits with BigFire Games CEO Bae Jaehyun (also stylized Jaehyun “James” Bae), a longtime NCSOFT veteran who currently holds the Vice President title at the parent company. Executive Producer Hwang Sung-jin partners with him on day-to-day production. The game is built on Unreal Engine 5 and represents NCSOFT's first attempt at an original IP in the open-world tactical shooter space rather than another entry in an existing franchise. For a broader introduction to the project, see Cinder City.
BigFire Games is a 100 percent NCSOFT subsidiary: per CEO Bae, the team that was making the project simply moved over wholesale into the new label. NCSOFT serves as publisher, with regional service operated by NC Corporation; the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand tier sits under NC America led by CEO Jeonghee “JJ” Jin. The choice of Unreal Engine 5 underpins the game's visual ambitions and its large, shared open-world spaces. Several key developers including Hwang Sung-jin reunited from the Blade and Soul launch team, though prior franchise content does not carry over: Cinder City is a new IP with a brand-new world.
The game was first revealed in late 2022 under the codename Project LLL and shown again at G-STAR 2023. On August 18, 2025, NCSOFT formally renamed the project Cinder City, and the following day, August 19, 2025, the game made its world-premiere gameplay debut at Gamescom's Opening Night Live. Project LLL and Cinder City refer to the same game; the codename was simply the placeholder used before the official name was revealed. Some early Project LLL design choices, including its earlier orc-hunting field framing, have since been superseded by the current single-player-campaign-leading-into-open-world structure.
Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
November 2022 | Announced as Project LLL at NCSOFT NCing |
November 2023 | Shown at G-STAR 2023 as Project LLL |
August 18, 2025 | Renamed Cinder City; brand site and official socials launched |
August 19, 2025 | World-premiere gameplay trailer at Gamescom Opening Night Live; NVIDIA private event at Hafen 12, Cologne |
October 30, 2025 | Playable demo at NVIDIA's Korean GeForce Gamer Festival (25-year-of-GeForce anniversary) |
November 6, 2025 | Microsoft Korea MOU signed for cloud and AI collaboration |
November 13 to 16, 2025 | G-STAR 2025 hands-on demo at BEXCO Busan; NC Cinema dome theater trailer reveal |
Early to mid 2026 | Planned global Closed Beta Test window |
Second half of 2026 | Planned simultaneous global launch on PC and consoles |
Cinder City is targeting a launch in the second half of 2026 with a simultaneous global release as the current intent, though no specific date has been narrowed down. NC America CEO Jeonghee “JJ” Jin reaffirmed the 2026 window at GDC 2026 and said the Closed Beta Test is coming “in the near future,” framing the CBT as the key moment that will inform a final launch date. Bae has previously described the open-beta window as falling between the start and middle of 2026, with internal tests running in parallel. Sign-ups had not opened as of mid-June 2026.
On November 6, 2025, NCSOFT signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft Korea to collaborate on Cinder City's development. The partnership integrates Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, Azure OpenAI services, and Copilot Studio into the game's development pipeline, with the two companies jointly designing a next-generation game-development ecosystem tailored for the AI era. BigFire Games CEO Bae and Microsoft Korea CEO Wonwoo Cho announced the MOU together.
On the hardware side, Cinder City is positioned as an NVIDIA RTX flagship. The PC build is confirmed to launch with DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Super Resolution, alongside Unreal Engine 5 Lumen lighting, Ray Reconstruction, ray tracing, and NVIDIA Reflex, and the game is planned for NVIDIA GeForce NOW from launch. A playable demo featured at NVIDIA's Korean GeForce Gamer Festival on October 30, 2025 marking the 25th anniversary of GeForce, and at the COMPUTEX 2026 showcase on May 31, 2026 the game was named among the titles launching with DLSS 4.5 support. For platform and hardware specifics, see Platforms and System Requirements.
Public demos have been concentrated around three flagship events. Gamescom 2025's Opening Night Live carried the world-premiere trailer on August 19, 2025, with a private hands-on demo for press at Hafen 12 in Cologne. The NVIDIA Korean GeForce Gamer Festival on October 30, 2025 added a second playable build. G-STAR 2025 at BEXCO Busan from November 13 to 16, 2025 hosted the largest hands-on event so far: wait times for the demo exceeded 180 minutes on day two, and NCSOFT's panoramic NC Cinema dome theater debuted a new cinematic trailer that introduced the second named hero, Angel, in its closing shot. Visitors received a Cinder City brand-identity portable battery.
The game's full business model has not been finalized. The one firm decision shared so far is that Cinder City will not be pay-to-win; Bae has confirmed that a battle pass is planned as part of the monetization mix. Whether the game will ship free-to-play, premium, or with a subscription element remains under discussion. As the studio confirms further details on pricing, monetization, and the beta schedule, this page will be updated to reflect the official information.