Former Goddess of Victory: Nikke devs form Control9 with new game on the way

• Goddess of Victory: Nikke developers have formed Control9, a studio creating its debut game.
• The studio is run by co-CEOs Soon-gu Cho and Se-woong Kwon, with illustrator Hyung-sup Kim (Hyulla) also involved in the project.

Veteran developers behind Shift Up’s Goddess of Victory: Nikke have established their own studio Control9, with its debut title on the way.

The studio is run by co-CEOs Soon-gu Cho and Se-woong Kwon, developing time travel RPG Miresi: Invisible Future for PC and mobile. Publisher Smilegate has opened pre-registrations ahead of Anime Expo 2026, where visitors will be able to try out Miresi: Invisible Future in North America for the first time.

"Special rewards" have been promised for event attendees who pre-register at the game’s booth in early July.

"Key developers"

Control9 was established by "key developers" behind the billion-dollar maker Goddess of Victory: Nikke as well as Seven Knights 2. Illustrator Hyung-sup Kim (Hyulla) is leading art direction, having previously contributed to various games including Goddess of Victory: Nikke.

The new game is expected to follow a protagonist called the Councillor, journeying with multiple heroines to save an era on the brink of ruin. Combat will be real-time and turn-based, with character positioning expected to play a key strategic role.

Early feedback from Tokyo Game Show in Japan and Anime x Game Festival in South Korea suggested almost 90% of expo players were satisfied or very satisfied by the 2D illustrations, versus 70% for 3D model quality.

As a result, the team announced plans to completely overhaul the 3D models with improvements to eyes and facial structures.

An official release date has yet to be confirmed, but Smilegate has launched recruitment for its Partner Creator programme, open to creators with at least 100 subscribers or followers.

Those creators who produce content related to Miresi: Invisible Future can expect a range of benefits, such as access to an exclusive Discord server to communicate with the team and priority invitations to various online and offline events.

"With our participation in Anime Expo, we wanted to create an opportunity to introduce Miresi to global players and communicate with them more closely, which is why we launched the pre-registration page," said Smilegate head of business for Miresi Jae-young Han.

"We will continue to gradually reveal more news and updates about Miresi through various channels, and we hope for your continued interest and excitement."