Expect no new NieR game anytime soon
It’s been nearly seven years since the release of NieR Automata, which catapulted the Drakengard series from niche to mainstream success. What’s surprising is that Square Enix and PlatinumGames haven’t capitalized on their success by remastering NieR. This has been strange; however, there are plans for another new NieR game; it just won’t happen anytime soon.
During the Korean video game event G-STAR 2023, Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito, who worked on the aforementioned NieR: Automata, revealed that he and the series’ creative director, Yoko Taro, will release a new entry. However, it is not the game on which the two are currently working. They are working on an unannounced game, which Saito teases will be revealed next year, in 2024. Saito is obviously not saying what this game is.
It’s obviously fantastic news that a new NieR game will be released eventually, but it appears to be many years away. If this new game is only revealed next year, it could be a couple of years before it is released, which means a new NieR game could not be released until the 2030s. That’s a long time, especially given that the wait began in 2017.
If you haven’t played NieR Automata yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. It received a Metacritic score of 91, making it one of the best games of the year and, for many, one of the biggest surprises of the previous console generation.
“NieR: Automata tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim the machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful machines,” reads an official game description excerpt. “Humanity has been driven from the Earth by mechanical beings from another world. In a final effort to take back the planet, the human resistance sends a force of android soldiers to destroy the invaders. Now, a war between machines and androids rages on… A war that could soon unveil a long-forgotten truth of the world.”