Neon Giant Confirms The Ascent 2 Is In the Works at Gamescom, Powered by Krafton's Backing

Neon Giant finally gave fans the green light they have been waiting on for four years. After sitting down with the studio at Gamescom 2026, IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole came away convinced that The Ascent 2 is now officially in the works, with the Swedish developer building a longer-term franchise plan around its cult cyberpunk twin-stick shooter. Creative director and co-founder Arcade Berg said the team always wanted to return to the Ascent universe, but team size and budget held them back until Krafton stepped in as a parent publisher.

Berg's exact framing was clear. "It's something we always wanted to do," he told IGN. "Creatively, after we were done with the first The Ascent, that was a smashing success for us, we just wanted to go somewhere else. We weren't ready to do more The Ascent there and then. And team size and also investment-wise, we weren't prepared for multiple projects." That changed once Krafton signed off on a multi-project roadmap that pairs The Ascent 2 with the studio's other announced game, the first-person immersive sim No Law.

Krafton unlocks a multi-project future

The Krafton deal is doing the heavy lifting here. Neon Giant had only 12 staff when it shipped the first Ascent in 2021, and it doubled to 24 to build No Law. Berg said that working with Krafton now gives the studio the backing and support it needs to take creative risks, with the explicit pitch being to turn The Ascent from a one-off game into a franchise. He declined to detail what shape The Ascent 2 will take, but he confirmed the franchise plan is longer term and that more news will land as development matures. Krafton has previously hinted that The Ascent will expand into new genres, which leaves the door open for everything from a return to twin-stick action to a first-person immersive sim like No Law.

The Ascent itself is overdue for attention. Krafton announced in July that a major Ascent update will land in November 2026, focused on smoother solo and co-op play, improvements to co-op teleportation, the encounter system, save-game reliability, and player-progression reliability. That patch ships five years after the original game's 2021 release and pulls in updates for a title that has now passed 12 million players across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Coming on the heels of that maintenance patch, a confirmed sequel is exactly the kind of signal the community needed.

Reaction is warm, but news is still soft

Community reaction has been quick and largely positive, though the announcement itself is more of a confirmation than a full reveal. IGN's tweet about The Ascent 2 picked up 18 likes and 14.4 million impressions inside a few hours, and replies from accounts like @ramonasmith16 read like a wishlist coming true. The Ascent was the kind of cult hit that punch above its weight, and even the smallest hint of a sequel tends to land with the people who actually finished it. None of the reactions showed up with major outlet coverage yet, and the only quoted source is Berg himself, so treat this as Neon Giant opening the door rather than showing the product.

It also matters what The Ascent 2 is not. There is no trailer, no release window, no platforms list, no Steam page, no engine confirmation, and no pricing. Berg was explicit that the studio will share more when it has something solid, so the only thing on the table right now is the franchise commitment itself. Anyone expecting a 2026 or even 2027 sequel announcement should temper those expectations. No Law ships first on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S in 2027, and The Ascent 2 sits behind it on the same roadmap.

Critical Pixel take

Neon Giant has earned this moment. A 24-person team that built one of the most visually dense cyberpunk worlds of the past decade finally gets the runway to do more with it, and that is worth celebrating without pretending the sequel is here. The original Ascent had a real identity and a short campaign, and the right move is to spend the next year or two listening to players about the November update before getting too excited about a sequel that has not been dated. Watch the November patch, watch No Law's launch in 2027, and treat The Ascent 2 as a real franchise commitment rather than a release date.

If Krafton is serious about a multi-year Ascent plan, expect more announcements, more platforms, and probably more genres than the original twin-stick template. That is the only thing Berg actually confirmed on the record, and it is the only thing worth taking to the bank. Everything else is noise until Neon Giant shows the work.