'I've had so many projects that have been discontinued lately': Nier creator Yoko Taro says he's been working on plenty of games—but they keep getting cancelled before he can announce them

NieR creator Yoko Taro in his trademark Emil mask from the games — (Image credit: Yoko Taro)

As one of the gaming industry's most treasured oddities, Nier series creator and masked enigma Yoko Taro contends with the fickle patience of a fanbase that's eager to know what he's working on next. As reported by 4Gamer (via Automaton), Yoko said during a G-Con 2025 discussion panel with Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya that—while his fans might joke that he doesn't do any work—he's actually had plenty of games in production recently.

The problem is they keep getting cancelled before anyone gets to see them.

"People often ask me why I don't make a sequel to Nier, or why I'm not working, but that's because I've had so many projects that have been discontinued lately," Yoko said via machine translation. "Even though I was working, it wasn't released to the public. I'm getting paid, so it's not a problem for me personally, but because my output isn't being released to the public, people see me as not working."

While that's particularly disappointing for anyone hoping for more Yoko Taro-brand weirdness, the Nier creator is just one of many game developers who've recently had to watch their work evaporate. 2025 has continued a years-long rash of game cancellations, studio closures, and associated layoffs, with major publishers like Microsoft axing ongoing projects like a ZeniMax MMO and a Perfect Dark reboot.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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