Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has praised Nier: Automata, and said its impact is so large, you can see a clear difference in the games industry "before Nier and after Nier."
Speaking to AV Watch, the ex-executive broke down his decades-long run at the publisher and dived into a time in the games industry where Japanese creators were chasing global trends to no avail. Yoshida explains that as blockbuster games abroad began to ape Hollywood and became more realistic - think of your GTAs, Gears of Wars, and The Last of Us' from the PS3/360 era - some Japanese developers also started making games to appeal to "slightly foreign tastes."
That was until Nier: Automata came out in 2017 and slowly became a huge hit. The existential slasher has now sold over nine million copies, and its main gal 2B is as recognizable as an action hero can be after having crossed over into countless other games and boosting Square Enix's most recent merch sales years post-release. Dare I say she might even be more popular than Squeenix's most enduring icon, the Dragon Quest slimes.
"I think [director] Yoko Taro made it without thinking about whether or not it would sell overseas," said Yoshida, in quotes translated by Genki. "From there it became clear that Japanese creators were making 'Japanese things' and those things were selling overseas. Everyone realized that with Nier." Yoshida then saw a shift in Japanese developers who felt free to stop imitating global trends.
"I think the Japanese game industry was revived after Nier so much so that I would say it was before Nier and after Nier," he continued.
We've seen a few other heavyweight creators chime in on the subject recently as well, most notably with Super Smash Bros. maestro Masahiro Sakurai, who said "Japanese people should keep pursuing the things that Japanese people like" rather than "making Americanized works." And the newly re-revealed Silent Hill f was made almost entirely because Konami higher-ups were worried the horror series was becoming too Westernized and wanted to bring back "a certain Japanese essence."
We might not be getting another Nier game soon, but why not sweeten the wait with some other new games of 2025 and beyond.
