Wow, NieR: Automata has certainly done well for itself. For the longest time, the action role-playing game was looking like it would have to settle for being a hit with a smaller audience, but it's actually managed to sell really, really well.
Publisher Square Enix says that the title has exceeded two million copies -- that's counting both physical shipments and digital sales. That's a great result for a game that's only been on store shelves for around half a year. No wonder the company is planning on exploring the NieR universe a little more in the future.
Are you a big fan of NieR? Take off that blindfold in the comments section below.
Comments 27
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I am so glad every time a JRPG that doesn't play it safe is a commercial success!
@Feena Yeah it's nice to see there's still a lot of creativity and risk being taken in Japan, unlike the west...
@Dodoo Not really, it was a pretty low budget title. There are a ton of lower budget creative Western games at the moment. Up until 2011-2012 I'd have been more inclined to agree with you though.
@kyleforrester87 your comment proves my point. Saying "low budget western games" is NOT taking much risk...
Still on my wish list but good news for gaming and more importantly, this might mean more mental videos of the creator wrestling unsuspecting colleagues.
Fantastic news, i love hearing things like this !!
@Rudy_Manchego Pretty sure that one video of him rolling on the floor and shouting "sh*t Square Enix!" sold more copies than any trailer or advert.
I have this one now but haven’t played it. It’s gonna be in my backlog for a while with ffix, mass effect, prey, and maybe finishing ac syndicate first. All with overwatch sprinkled in. It’s gonna take a while to get to it but I’m excited!
@ShogunRok It put it on my radar!
@Dodoo My point was Nier is low budget too.. so not a huge risk. If it'd have had, say, FF15s budget then sure. Big risk.
Love the dynamic music in this game. The music transitions seemed seamless with the action...and so haunting. Great game. Glad it's performed well.
@JoeBlogs I know it costs a lot to make AAA games. Nier may not be as big a budget as CoD or GTA for example but it would still cost millions.
Either way my comment was more about Japan taking more risks in general. I didn't mention Nier specifically.
@Dodoo It's probably a riskier concept from a Western perspective. If they were real risk takers they'd be working on Xbox exclusives though
Good stuff.
Now if only Gravity Rush 2 would've sold this many copies.
@kyleforrester87 True!
@JoeBlogs saying it's an "action based open world game" is a bit like saying Inception is about 5 men who fall asleep in a van. It's a lot more than that!
Nice, can't wait for the sequel
@Deadlyblack
After so many games failing to sell well, it nice to hear a success story for a niche game.
I'm just glad Platinum might be able to get back on track now. It had Bayonetta 2 but after that it was a string of bad luck and poor decisions. Scalebound cancellation probably the lowest point. Then this game hit the market and appears to have turned things around. It is an excellent Action/RPG, if not for Yakuza 0, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Resident Evil VII: biohazard and Horizon: Zero Dawn it'd be in my top 5 for the year.
Is that over 2m to the PS4 users or does that also include the PC market as well? Either way, I would still consider this to be a 'hit for smaller (dare I say 'niche') audiences. Assuming this is 'just' PS4 sales and not including PC, 2m to a potential 60+m users doesn't scream a 'mass appeal'. If that includes PC too, then I would say that makes it even more 'niche'
I am not criticising the game at all and maybe Square Enix and/or Platinum Games are thrilled by these numbers, exceeding expectations etc. I don't know what they were expecting or hoping for myself.
I also have no idea on the budget but if FFxv sold 2m, they would be very disappointed considering they (so say) needed to sell 10m to break even. Its all relative but consider some games that people consider as 'flops', the amount of games those sold - even if you only look at the 'physical' numbers on a single Platform and some of the sales of games that are considered 'successful', I do find it 'funny'. AC: Unity and Syndicate for that matter, Watchdogs, Watchdogs 2 (a sequel to a game that no-one wanted and a 'surprise' considering Watchdogs was supposedly not the 'success' all sold more on PS4 alone than a game like Bloodborne, let alone Nier. I appreciate its very different budgets, expectations etc but also illustrates my point about 'numbers'. If CoD doesn't sell 20-25m its considered a 'flop', yet it always outsells (at least to date) it biggest rival in Battlefield yet a game that sells 2m in around 6mths is success.
Without the 'information' about 'budget' and development costs, expectation, etc, the 'sales' figures are meaningless. 2m may well be fantastic for 'Nier' but a disaster for Mass Effect: Andromeda.
@kyleforrester87
It was a risk in that it was a fringe property that couldve easily been completely ignored upon release, killing the franchise and possibly impacting the careers of those who worked on it
@ztpayne7 Well you'll be pleased! Nier is probably better than all of the games you just listed.
@BAMozzy Most games only sell a percentage of a platforms user base cos a general audience will only buy a few games a year and their usually your Fifa's CoDs etc. As long as the publisher is happy with the sales that they want to invest in the IP then cool.
Go P*! Get the sales you deserve!
Very well deserved, it's an important game. Hoping for a Nier remake
@adf86 I know, but without the relative information etc, the quantity of sales is almost meaningless. Of course its very unusual for a game to sell more than 25% of its potential install base but also some games may only need to reach 5% to be 'successful' where as another may need to sell to at least 10%.
If CoD sold 2m to PS4 users it would be considered a disaster despite reaching the same percentage of users that Nier has. Of course that doesn't take into consideration the big differences in investment, marketing etc...
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