A new mobile game in the Nier series was allegedly in the works before being cancelled by Tencent in December 2023, says Reuters.
The unannounced title was said to have made “significant progress” in its two years of development. Reportedly, its axing came from struggles with finding a proper monetization method.
2017’s Nier Automata was the series’ last console entry. It jumped over to mobile with Nier Reincarnation in 2021, which itself is going offline in late April.
Square Enix has been vague on whether (or when) the franchise will continue. Director Yoko Taro says he has every intention of continuing the series as long as he (literally) lives, but hasn’t announced anything yet.
Unlike with other recently canceled projects, Tencent is reportedly not laying off staff. Rather, it’ll transfer those team members to other development units.
Tencent is looking for a licensed, golden goose
Reuters claims Nier’s franchise rights were also a point of contention for Tencent. It would’ve owed 15-20 percent in royalties to Square Enix, when it’d hoped to pay 10 percent.
China’s potential game regulations may also be partly to blame. In December, its government introduced a proposal targeting in-game daily rewards and purchases.
Both business practices are a key part of mobile games. And while specifics of those rules aren’t set in stone, they may have rattled the team handling this project’s monetization efforts.
Further, Tencent now believes licensed games are getting “too expensive” to make. It’s previously made mobile spinoffs for PUBG: Battlegrounds and League of Legends, and is developing one for Assassin’s Creed.
Last week, Tencent CEO Pony Ma said he felt like his company didn’t do anythin notable for 2023. It’s easy to imagine this cancellation was somewhere in his mind as he said this.