On July 3, 2026, South Korean gaming giant Nexon officially unveiled a new console and PC game project codenamed “Project DW” during an official presentation. This open-world action RPG, based on the Dungeon & Fighter intellectual property, is the flagship title of Nexon’s previously announced “DNF Universe” initiative and is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The presentation was held in Seoul and streamed globally through Nexon’s official channels.
The official title of Project DW has been confirmed as DNF World: Arad Chronicle. According to Nexon’s official description, the game “reimagines the continent of Arad,” reconstructing the classic 2D environments from the original Dungeon & Fighter side-scrolling fighting online game — Grand Flores, Sky Tower, Underfoot, the Snowfield of Ston, and others — in a fully 3D open world. The gameplay demo showcased the Grand Flores area at a scale far exceeding the single-screen sections of the original fighting game: players can freely roam through dense forests, climb ancient elven ruins, or venture into caves to explore hidden dungeons. Nexon confirmed that the game world will continue to expand through free updates after launch, gradually incorporating other classic regions from the original game.
The combat system was the focus of the demonstration. DNF World retains the signature “skill combo” system of the original game but fully reconstructs it within a 3D space. Each character features an independent skill tree, with skills divided into three categories: Active Skills, Passive Skills, and Awakening Skills. Active Skills can be freely assigned to shortcut keys on the controller, and different sequences of skill combinations produce different combo effects. The demo displayed a Slayer combo: initiating with an Uppercut to launch the enemy into the air, chaining into Ghost Slash for an aerial pursuit, landing and using Mountain Wheel to deal area damage, and finishing with the Awakening Skill Extreme Ghost Slash: Storm.
Regarding the class system, Nexon confirmed that the game will launch with six playable classes: Slayer, Fighter, Gunner, Mage, Priest, and Thief. Each class, upon reaching a certain level, can choose between two different advancement paths through an advancement quest — the Slayer can become a Berserker or Blade Master; the Fighter can become a Striker or Nen Master; the Gunner can become a Ranger or Launcher. Nexon stated that more classic classes and advancement branches will be added through free updates after launch, including highly requested classes such as the Female Slayer and Demonic Lancer.
On the multiplayer front, DNF World supports up to four-player online co-op. Dungeons exist as instanced content that players can challenge solo or in a party, with difficulty scaling dynamically based on party size. World Bosses are public events within the open world, spawning at irregular intervals; all players present in the area can participate in the fight, and rewards are distributed according to contribution percentage. Players can also engage in friendly 1v1 or 3v3 Arena battles, though Nexon emphasized that the core of the game is the PvE experience rather than competitive balance.
This unveiling represents the latest step in Nexon’s “DNF Universe” strategy. The initiative has already produced several cross-genre titles, including the fighting game DNF Duel, the survivor-like mobile title DNF: Arad x Crypt, and the PC and console title The First Berserker: Khazan. The First Berserker: Khazan, released in March 2025 to favorable reception, provided Nexon with valuable experience in the console and PC market for the DNF Universe. During the presentation, Nexon also confirmed that all DNF Universe titles share a unified timeline of world lore, with DNF World set approximately two hundred years after the events of The First Berserker: Khazan, and that multiple storylines will intersect across future titles.
