NieR series Producer: NieR series will continue, "while Yoko Taro is still alive"

It's been a few years since the last new NieR series title launched, but the series is far from done. According to Yosuke Saito, producer on the NieR series, including NieR Automata and NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... In fact, Saito said that it'd go on while the series creator, Yoko Taro, "is still alive." According to a report by 4gamer, Saito delivered his comment at South Korea's G-Star 2023 convention, at the close of a panel titled "A meeting to talk incessantly about the production of NieR Automata".

It was attended by series luminaries Takahisa Taura, Keiichi Okabe, Akihiko Yoshida, and Yoko Taro himself. The panel discussed various topics related to the NieR titles, such as what it would take to replicate NieR Automata's success, some of the motivation behind Automata's development, and the relative importance of "fun".

According to Saito, a key factor in NieR Automata's success was "a well-balanced team," something that extends past simply bringing talented people together. Yoko contributed, saying that he and Taura, who was Automata's Senior Game Designer, had a good existing relationship and shared a vision for the game.

On the matter of "fun", Yoko said that his job as a Director involves helping design the the game to give players "A reason to buy [the game]." In other words, appealing to sensibilities like love of artwork or music can outweigh "fun" in the calculus of a player's purchase decision. NieR Automata was created with the goal of it being a "memorable" game that players "would want to talk about", more than simply being "fun".

Saito closed out the panel by declaring that he would "release [more titles] for the NieR series while Yoko is still alive." However, he didn't confirm outright that new titles were in active production, instead saying that there were "some circumstances" that make them unable to release new NieR titles immediately.

He also confirmed that he and Yoko are working on a new, non-NieR project, and said he'd like to talk about it more in 2024.