Developer BigFire Games has revealed more details about its upcoming MMO shooter Cinder City. In an interview with WCCFTech, publisher NC America’s director of operations, Daniel Lafuente, confirmed that the title will not be a free-to-play release. Rather, it will use a Buy-to-Play model, with future revenue supplemented by the presence of an in-game store selling cosmetic items and battle passes.
Further in the interview, Lafuente was asked whether there are plans for post-launch expansions. In response, the director of operations noted that Cinder City will get plenty of content updates after launch, since BigFire Games is aiming for a live-service approach to the title. Whether there will be expansions, however, remains unknown, since the studio is currently focused on the shooter’s launch.
“It will be a live service game, so there will be updates coming out with new narratives, new missions that come with those, and new co-op dungeons. The typical live service expectation of added content over time. That’s also why we’ll have Battle Passes,” he explained. “We haven’t talked about expansions right now. First, we’re focused on the launch.”
Since it’s a multiplayer game, Lafuente was also asked about whether Cinder City will support cross-platform multiplayer between PC and consoles. He noted that the title is only coming to PC at launch, and a console release is planned for later. Due to this, the status of crossplay is “undecided”, and more concrete plans will be made as we get deeper into Cinder City’s release window.
“It’s undecided right now. When we launch, it will be PC only for the first time launch, and console will come later, so we’re still waiting to make that decision as we get further along.”
Cinder City just came off a pre-alpha playtest from last month, which Lafuente has noted resulted in plenty of positive feedback. BigFire Games plans to hold more playtests in the future across a variety of regions in the EU, Latin America, and Asia. More details about the MMO shooter will likely also be revealed as we get closer to the next major alpha test for the game in Q4 2026.
Cinder City, originally being developed under the working title Project LLL, was officially unveiled back in August 2025. The title is being developed using Unreal Engine 5 and is slated for release in the second half of 2026. However, the company is yet to confirm an official release date for the title.
It has been described as an MMO tactical shooter that takes place in a dystopian version of Seoul, Korea. Some of the in-game locations will even be based on their real-world counterparts, like Noyeong-dong and Samseong-dong. CEO of BigFire Games and project lead, Jaehyun Bae, had spoken about how the name of the game was meant to convey “the meaning of humanity in the future” that is “facing a serious crisis”.
Some of the major influences behind the game include classics of the sci-fi and cyberpunk genres, like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Foundation, Dune, The Man in the High Castle, and the works of Philip K. Dick.
