Automata was wonderfully weird and weirdly successful for a game about sad robots coming to terms with their own existence in a nihilistic world. It did have a good butt, though, so maybe its success isn’t that surprising.
Now it seems that Square Enix are hiring for more Nier. A NeoGAF user has dug up a recruitment page on their Japanese site with messages from series director Yoko Taro and series producer Yosuke Saito. The Business Division 6 Square Enix are hiring for regularly works with external developers on collaborative projects, such as Automata’s development with Platinum Games, and it seems the new listings are Nier-specific scenario staff.
In case you’ve forgotten, I want to remind you that Nier: Automata, improbably successful darling of game fans everywhere, is the sequel to 2010’s Nier, a game so impenetrably bizarre that even the people who liked it will caution you against playing it. That in turn was a spin-off to an alternate ending of PS2 RPG Drakengard, which by now would’ve been dead and buried if it weren’t for its connection to later sequels.
And now this is the franchise that saved Platinum Games. Given Automata’s popularity and BD6’s history of external collaboration, I’d say it’s safe to guess that Platinum will be a part of Nier’s next chapter. I don’t maybe, maybe they’ll work with Nintendo to make a Nier kart racer. Maybe Death Stranding is secretly a part of the Nier-o-verse. Yoko Taro’s involved, so maybe I shouldn’t guess.
