Nier: Automata is coming to Steam

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The action-RPG Nier was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and it was fairly okay stuff: Reviews were “mixed,” as they say, although Eurogamer last year credited it as one of the rare games that seems to get better as it gets older. (Even there, it qualified that judgment by saying Nier was “always more interesting than it was 'good'.”) Despite that tepid response, Square Enix announced last year that a sequel, entitled Nier: Automata, is in development for the PlayStation 4 from developer Platinum Games and series mastermind Taro Yoko. And today, it revealed that the new game is coming to the PC as well.

In Nier: Automata, humanity has been forced to flee the Earth by invading aliens and their devastating secret weapon, “the machines.” From a base on the moon, the surviving humans tried to stem the machine tide with their own army of androids, but were only able to slow the advance; now, in an effort to turn things around, a “new breed of android infantry” known as the YoRHa Squad is sent into the battle.

“In the forsaken wasteland below, the war between the machines and the androids rages on,” the announcement says. “A war that is soon to unveil the long-forgotten truth of this world…”

That truth may have something to do with how Nier and Nier: Automata are connected. The original was about a chap named Nier and his quest to find a cure for a devastating illness known as the Black Scrawl, while the sequel “tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim a machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful weapons known as machine lifeforms.” Thematic connections, perhaps: “What can change the nature of a man” and all that, spread across a multi-title franchise?

We'll find out soon enough, as Nier is slated to hit Steam sometime in early 2017. Until then, more information is up at nier-automata.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.