As of September 2026, Neowiz’s next Lies of P game has crossed a milestone few fans were watching for: IGN reported the sequel entered full production in May 2026, a step up from the vertical-slice status Neowiz had disclosed just months earlier, and that advance landed in the same window a separate trademark filing reignited the sequel rumor mill. Together, the two threads show a publisher betting its balance sheet on a single soulslike franchise while quietly building generative AI into its art pipeline, a combination that’s now drawing scrutiny from both investors and the community that made Lies of P a breakout hit in 2023.
On September 10, 2026, Neowiz’s development arm NOUGH filed a European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) trademark for “Wonders of O,” and the filing was quickly linked by outlets, including ComicBook.com, to Neowiz’s long-teased Lies of P sequel. But that leak arrived on top of a much bigger data drop from four months earlier: Neowiz’s Q1 2026 earnings presentation, first detailed by Wccftech, which confirmed the sequel has moved into “vertical slice” production, revealed a six-project development slate, and disclosed that Round8 Studio is hiring an “AI Creator” to speed up art production. Read together, the two stories complicate a simple leak narrative and turn this into a story about how one of gaming’s most closely watched franchises is actually being built.
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Lies of P sequel: key facts at a glance
- Vertical slice confirmed. Neowiz’s Q1 2026 earnings presentation says the Lies of P sequel has moved beyond prototyping into the “vertical slice” development phase.
- Six-game pipeline. That same presentation disclosed a six-project development slate, with the Lies of P sequel positioned as the flagship title.
- “Wonders of O” trademark filed. Neowiz’s development arm NOUGH filed a EUIPO trademark for “Wonders of O” on September 10, 2026, though Neowiz has not confirmed it as the sequel’s title.
- AI art backlash. Round8 Studio is hiring an “AI Creator” for reference-only art generation, a move that has already drawn fan pushback over creative integrity.
What Neowiz’s Q1 2026 earnings actually revealed about the Lies of P sequel
Neowiz’s Q1 2026 financial presentation, reported by Wccftech, disclosed that the Lies of P sequel had moved beyond prototyping into what the company calls the “vertical slice” phase, and by May 2026, IGN reported the project had taken the next step, entering full production. In game development terms, a vertical slice is a polished, playable internal build meant to represent the final product’s core mechanics, visual fidelity, and combat feel, well short of a finished game but a meaningful step past early prototyping; full production is the stage that follows, where that validated slice becomes the foundation for building out the complete game. Neowiz described the project as having, in the company’s own words as quoted by Wccftech, “completed validation of its core fun elements and moved into a phase to enhance the actual play experience and overall polish.”
That single sentence told industry watchers a lot, and the IGN report that followed in May 2026, confirming the project had entered full production, backed it up. Studios rarely reach vertical slice, let alone full production, without a clear sense of what the finished game will play like, which suggests Round8 Studio has already locked its combat loop and general structure. It still implies the project is likely years, not months, from release, since full production itself typically spans years of content creation, level design, and QA before a shippable build exists.
Neowiz’s six-game pipeline puts the Lies of P sequel front and center
The bigger revelation buried in the same presentation was the scope of Neowiz’s overall development slate. The publisher disclosed six active projects spanning internal studios and external partners, with the Lies of P sequel positioned as the clear flagship. The full lineup, as reported by Wccftech, breaks down as follows.
| Project | Genre | Platform | Development Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lies of P Sequel | Souls-like RPG | PC / Console | Vertical slice |
| Project Rubicon | Narrative RPG | PC / Console | Vertical slice |
| Project CF | Life simulation | PC / Console | Production |
| Wolfeye Studios project (published by Neowiz) | Retro sci-fi first-person RPG | PC / Console | Production |
| Zakazane Studio project (published by Neowiz) | Noir Western CRPG | PC / Console | Production |
| Project Windi | Souls-like RPG | PC / Console | Prototype |
Two things stand out in that table. First, Round8 Studio is running two souls-like projects at once, the Lies of P sequel and the still-prototype Project Windi, suggesting Neowiz sees the genre as a core competency rather than a one-off success. Second, the publisher’s list of external partnerships, including projects from Wolfeye Studios and Zakazane Studio, shows Neowiz using its Lies of P earnings to diversify into genres well outside soulslike territory, from noir Western role-playing to retro sci-fi.
The AI art controversy inside Round8 Studio
The same earnings presentation that confirmed the vertical slice milestone also disclosed that Round8 Studio is hiring for an “AI Creator” role, using generative AI tools to speed up art production, a move Wccftech described as following the broader industry trend toward AI-assisted production that studios like Sony have also pursued. ComicBook.com’s follow-up reporting added detail on how the role is scoped, noting the studio’s own description that AI-generated visuals are intended for repetitive, foundational tasks such as backgrounds and textures, with the studio stating that “AI-generated visuals function strictly as internal reference material during pre-production,” and that final assets are still created by human artists using the AI output only as a visual reference.
That framing hasn’t stopped backlash. ComicBook.com reported significant pushback from fans concerned about creative integrity and the authenticity of the game’s art direction once generative tools enter any part of the pipeline, even in a reference-only capacity. It’s a familiar fight playing out across entertainment industries in 2026, but the timing is notable here: Round8 Studio built its reputation on Lies of P’s distinctive Belle Époque art direction, and any perception that art quality could be diluted by automation strikes directly at what made the original game stand out in a crowded genre.
Sequel or prequel? The conflicting reports, explained
Coverage of Neowiz’s next Lies of P title hasn’t been consistent on one key point: whether the in-development project is a direct sequel or another prequel chapter. Wccftech’s earnings breakdown labels the flagship project plainly as the “Lies of P Sequel,” a souls-like RPG in vertical slice. But ComicBook.com’s later feature framed the same wave of news around fan disappointment that the upcoming game is a prequel rather than a sequel, pointing out that the previous expansion, Lies of P: Overture, was itself a prequel chapter set during the fall of the city of Krat, and that another prequel would again delay resolution of the original game’s ending cliffhangers.
The discrepancy likely comes down to imprecise labeling rather than a hidden plot twist, since Neowiz has not published a detailed synopsis alongside the vertical slice disclosure. But it explains why the September 10 “Wonders of O” trademark filing, submitted by Neowiz’s development arm NOUGH via the EUIPO, landed as such a flashpoint: fans already primed to worry about another prequel are now trying to figure out whether “Wonders of O” is the vertical-slice sequel project, a wholly separate title, or a rebrand of Project Windi. Neowiz has not clarified which project the trademark applies to.
Neowiz’s Q1 2026 financial snapshot
The development news doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Neowiz’s Q1 2026 results, as reported by Wccftech, show a publisher generating KRW 101.4 billion (~$74 million) in quarterly revenue while leaning heavily on its back catalog to fund six simultaneous projects, with no new major releases in the quarter.
| Metric | Q1 2026 Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | KRW 101.4 billion (~$74 million) | +13.9% YoY, -4.6% QoQ |
| Operating profit | KRW 7.0 billion (~$5.1 million) | -32% YoY |
| Net profit | KRW 15.5 billion (~$11.3 million) | +153% YoY |
| New releases in quarter | None | N/A |
| Mobile growth driver | Browndust 2 anniversary events | N/A |
| PC/Console revenue driver | Lies of P: Overture DLC, Shape of Dreams | N/A |
The net profit jump, up 153% year-over-year, looks impressive on paper, but Wccftech’s reporting attributes most of that swing to foreign exchange gains tied to a strong US dollar rather than operating performance. Operating profit, the more direct measure of how the core business is doing, actually fell 32% year-over-year. That gap matters for how investors should read the six-game bet: Neowiz’s underlying game business is not currently generating the cash flow growth that would make funding six simultaneous projects, several without an announced release date, an obviously low-risk strategy.
Lies of P’s franchise sales put the stakes in context
The scale of Neowiz’s bet on the Lies of P sequel becomes clearer when you look at what the original game and its Overture DLC have already delivered. Lies of P: Overture launched on June 6, 2025, as a shadow-drop reveal at Summer Game Fest, became the number-one best-selling game on Steam within its first week, according to reporting from WorthPlaying and AllKeyShop, and went on to win Best Game Expansion at the Golden Joystick Awards that December. Neowiz reported the franchise had already topped 3 million combined sales by June 2025, and Gematsu reported the broader player base, including Xbox Game Pass subscribers, had reached 7 million by that same month. Combined base game and DLC sales for the franchise had reportedly surpassed 4 million copies by March 2026, per Neowiz’s own quarterly disclosures and Gematsu’s reporting, an increase of roughly 1 million copies since June 2025, with close to 90% of that revenue coming from Western markets in North America and Europe during Q4 2025 rather than Neowiz’s home market of South Korea.
That Western-heavy sales mix is precisely why Neowiz’s generative AI hire and the sequel’s development pace matter beyond Korea’s borders. A soulslike franchise built almost entirely on international word-of-mouth and critical reception is unusually exposed to any perception, fair or not, that quality is being compromised to hit a schedule, which is the exact criticism the AI Creator job posting has invited from parts of the fanbase.
Historical context: how Lies of P became a soulslike breakout
Lies of P launched in September 2023 as a Pinocchio-inspired soulslike from a South Korean studio with no prior AAA pedigree, a combination that made its commercial success genuinely unexpected inside the industry. Round8 Studio had never shipped a project of this scale before, and the genre it entered, punishing action-RPGs built around the Dark Souls and Bloodborne formula, has historically punished newcomers who can’t match the combat precision fans expect. Lies of P cleared that bar well enough to justify a full DLC expansion less than two years later and, per Neowiz’s own figures, to push the franchise past the 4 million unit mark.
Neowiz first teased a Lies of P sequel back in November 2023, barely two months after the original game’s launch, before formally confirming in June 2025 that the sequel was in active development, albeit without a price or release date attached, an unusually fast greenlight that signals just how quickly the original’s reception convinced the publisher to double down. Three years after that initial tease, IGN reported the project had advanced from vertical slice into full production by May 2026, showing that commitment translating into sustained investment rather than a shelved announcement, even as the project’s exact identity, sequel, prequel, or “Wonders of O,” remains murkier than Neowiz’s own messaging would suggest it should be.
Competitive comparison: where Lies of P sits in the soulslike market
Lies of P’s 4 million-unit franchise total is a genuine success story for a first-time AAA developer, but it’s still a fraction of what the genre’s biggest players move. Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s 2022 release, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and its 2025 standalone spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign sold roughly 2 million units in its first 24 hours before crossing 5 million copies within two months of launch, according to sales reporting cited by RPG Site. Elden Ring’s own DLC expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, has separately topped 10 million copies sold on its own.
Those numbers put Neowiz’s position in perspective: Lies of P is a credible, profitable soulslike franchise, but it competes in a genre where the category leader can outsell an entire successful trilogy with a single spinoff’s opening weekend. That gap is likely part of why Neowiz is diversifying into five other projects rather than betting its entire publishing slate on souls-like games matching FromSoftware’s scale, while still treating the Lies of P sequel as the anchor project most likely to justify continued investment in the genre.
What Round8 Studio and Neowiz executives have said
Neowiz has been notably guarded in public comments about the sequel’s specifics, even as internal development has clearly progressed. Speaking to Game Informer, Neowiz co-CEO Sean Kim said, “At this point, there is nothing specific we can share in detail,” when asked about the sequel, while still confirming momentum on the project: “I can tell you that the team at Round8 Studio is excited about their work and fully focused on development,” Kim told Game Informer.
Round8 Studio’s Game Director Jiwon Choi has been more forthcoming about the studio’s storytelling ambitions, describing the Overture expansion’s narrative in a Neowiz press release as “a tale of vengeance, impending tragedy, and dark secrets that haunt those that wanted them locked away,” and adding that “our players have been eager to learn more about the events that led to the Puppet Frenzy massacre and the collapse of the City of Krat, and we look forward to delivering the truth this summer,” according to the official Neowiz press release.
More recently, Lies of P director Choi Ji-won offered a brief tease about the next chapter, telling press that “you won’t be disappointed, we promise. This is the truth, not a lie,” in comments reported by Nintendo Life. Taken together, the executive commentary confirms confidence and momentum without resolving any of the sequel-versus-prequel or “Wonders of O” naming questions currently circulating.
Market impact: why this matters beyond one game
For Neowiz, the Lies of P sequel isn’t just a creative follow-up, it’s the load-bearing project in a six-game slate funded by a publisher whose operating profit fell 32% year-over-year even as headline net profit looked strong. If the sequel underdelivers commercially or the AI art controversy escalates into a broader boycott sentiment among the Western fanbase that drove roughly 90% of the original franchise’s revenue, Neowiz’s diversification bet into narrative RPGs, life simulation, and noir Western CRPGs becomes much harder to fund. Conversely, a strong sequel launch would validate Round8 Studio’s approach and could make Neowiz a more attractive publishing partner for the external studios, Wolfeye and Zakazane among them, already in its pipeline.
The AI art question also has implications reaching past this one studio. As more mid-sized publishers adopt generative tools for pre-production reference work rather than final assets, the industry is effectively running a live test of whether that distinction, reference-only versus finished-asset generation, will satisfy players or simply delay a larger reckoning over AI’s role in game art. Round8 Studio’s experience over the next year, positive or negative, will likely become a reference point other studios cite when making the same call.
Predictions: what happens next for Lies of P
- No 2026 or 2027 release. A project still in vertical slice as of Q1 2026 realistically points to a release no earlier than late 2027, and industry vertical-slice-to-launch timelines historically run longer, not shorter, once full production and QA begin.
- Neowiz will eventually clarify the sequel-versus-prequel confusion. The gap between Wccftech’s “sequel” framing and ComicBook.com’s “prequel” framing is unsustainable once marketing ramps up, and Neowiz will likely issue a clearer synopsis or subtitle to end the ambiguity.
- The “Wonders of O” trademark will resurface as an official reveal name. Trademark filings this close to a vertical slice milestone typically precede a formal unveiling within one to two quarters, making a late-2026 or early-2027 announcement plausible.
- AI art scrutiny will intensify, not fade. Given the backlash ComicBook.com already documented, expect Round8 Studio to face repeated questions at every future showcase about exactly which assets involved generative tools, regardless of the studio’s reference-only framing.
- Neowiz’s non-soulslike bets will get more marketing attention as launches near. With Project CF, the Wolfeye Studios project, and the Zakazane Studio project already in production, expect at least one of those three to receive a full reveal before the Lies of P sequel does, since they’re further along the pipeline than the still-prototype Project Windi and the vertical-slice flagship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the new Lies of P game a sequel or a prequel?
Reports conflict. Wccftech’s summary of Neowiz’s Q1 2026 earnings labels the flagship project the “Lies of P Sequel,” while ComicBook.com’s later feature described fan concerns that the new title is another prequel, following the prequel structure of the Overture DLC. Neowiz has not issued a public statement resolving the discrepancy.
What is “Wonders of O”?
“Wonders of O” is a title that surfaced via a EUIPO trademark filing submitted by Neowiz’s development arm NOUGH on September 10, 2026, which ComicBook.com and other outlets have linked to the next Lies of P game. Neowiz has not confirmed which in-development project, if any, the trademark corresponds to.
What does “vertical slice” mean for the Lies of P sequel’s release timeline?
Vertical slice is a development stage where a studio builds a small, polished, playable section representing the intended final quality, mechanics, and visuals. It comes after prototyping but before full production, and IGN reported in May 2026 that the Lies of P sequel had already made that jump, meaning the project confirmed in Q1 2026 has since moved into full production but likely still needs a substantial multi-year development period before release.
Is Round8 Studio using AI to replace artists on the Lies of P sequel?
According to ComicBook.com’s reporting on the studio’s own job posting, Round8 Studio says AI-generated visuals are used strictly as internal reference material during pre-production for repetitive, foundational tasks like backgrounds and textures, with final assets still produced by human artists. The posting has still drawn backlash from parts of the fanbase concerned about the broader precedent.
How well did the original Lies of P and its Overture DLC sell?
Combined sales of Lies of P and its Overture expansion had surpassed 3 million copies by June 2025 and climbed past 4 million copies by March 2026, according to Neowiz’s own disclosures and Gematsu’s reporting, an increase of roughly 1 million copies in under a year, with roughly 90% of that revenue coming from Western markets in North America and Europe during Q4 2025. Gematsu also reported the broader player base, including Xbox Game Pass subscribers, had reached 7 million by June 2025. Overture itself launched June 6, 2025, became Steam’s number-one best-selling game within its first week, and went on to win Best Game Expansion at the Golden Joystick Awards that December.
What other games is Neowiz developing besides the Lies of P sequel?
Neowiz disclosed a six-project pipeline in its Q1 2026 earnings presentation: the Lies of P sequel, Project Rubicon (a narrative RPG), Project CF (a life simulation game), a Wolfeye Studios project (a retro sci-fi first-person RPG), a Zakazane Studio project (a noir Western CRPG), and Project Windi (a second souls-like RPG still in prototype).
How does Lies of P compare to Elden Ring in sales?
Lies of P’s franchise total sits around 4 million units, while FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, with its 2025 spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign alone passing 5 million copies within two months of launch. Lies of P is a strong success for a first-time AAA developer but remains far smaller in scale than the genre’s category leader.
When will Neowiz officially reveal the Lies of P sequel?
No official reveal date has been announced. Given the project’s vertical slice status as of Q1 2026 and the recent trademark activity around “Wonders of O,” a formal unveiling within the next one to two quarters is plausible, though Neowiz has not committed to a timeline.
