Let’s try to reconstruct how it was possible to get toRemastered edition From a blatant failure like LangerhansHe listed a series of breaks that led to the creation Yoke: Automata.
Yoko Taro He’s not kidding when he says his toys never sell anything. The first two Drakengards are appreciated by a very small group of players. The third was for the simple fixation of Takamasa Shiba, who still wanted to go to please fans of the series. NieR sold little, either because Square Enix didn’t fully believe in it, which messed up marketing to the furthest, especially in the West, or because Drakengard’s son, didn’t receive enough budget to make him competitive with other products at the time.
After NieR, the saga was considered practically dead within the company, except for one person: producer Yôsuke Saitô, who, with enviable perseverance, managed to take advantage of a special moment of luck to start the new game. Journalist Nicholas Torsev says it in the book:The Strange Works of Taro Yoko: From Drakengard to NieR: AutomataThe story of how Automata turned from an unexpected illusion to a real game is reconstructed in detail.
Despite NieR’s commercial failure, Saitô still wanted to do something in the same universe, which he said still had a lot to say. Too bad that the peaks Square Enix They tend not to invest in it. Whatever the case, NieR has become a small but very active cult and community object around the game, who is starting to produce fan art for Kainé and Emil and who discusses every detail, even in the most subtle of the game’s plot, applauds Yoko Taro’s work. We are talking about a few thousand players, who have kept NieR’s memory alive, and never made him disappear from the scene (especially in Japan).
Meanwhile, the stars lined up. The entire Square Enix management opposed a sequel to NieR, except for one executive, Yosuke Matsuda, Who wrote to Saitô defining the hypothetical conditions for a new chapter, i.e. talking about what a new game would have to be to succeed where NieR failed. Matsuda was responsible for financial and administrative affairs at the time. His conversations with Saitô didn’t mean the game had the green light, but meanwhile something happened that completely changed the cards on the table. In April 2013, Matsuda was appointed CEO of Square Enix, replacing Yôichi Wada, who had been responsible for losing more than $ 130 million in the previous fiscal year.
Suddenly Saito found himself surrounded by Square Enix CEO himself (with whom he had an excellent professional and personal relationship), who, moreover, in his plan to restructure the company, gave more power to the producers to carry out individual projects. Matsuda wanted more flexible management of various products, which no longer necessarily needed board approval, but approved by different departments. Saito seized the opportunity. A member of Dragon Quest’s Business Division 6, confirmed to us its reputation and Matsuda agreed to fund the new NieR.
During the brainstorming phase of the new game (I think we also risked getting NieR: Farmville), it was agreed that one of NieR’s weaknesses was Combat system. There was also a big problem: The original Cavia development team is now closed. Who will take care of the new chapter then? Here came another hit of good luck, which solved both problems in one fell swoop.
At the time, Square Enix was negotiating with PlatinumGames to do something together. The developer and publisher didn’t know what yet, really. It would be fortunate that one of the Platinum Games developers responsible for submitting a project to the publisher, Takahisa Taura, was a big fan of NieR and that the game he was planning was just a virtual follow-up to his favorite title. It must be emphasized that our project at that time knew nothing about Saitô projects. The latter, upon learning of the danger of Taura, was shocked by chance and decided to merge the projects, so PlatinumGames officially became the developer of what would later become NieR: Automata, which was decided to release on PC and PS4. That way, Square Enix was also sure that there were no problems with the combat system, given the Osaka studio background.
