NieR: Automata hits 4 million milestone

Combined NieR: Automata shipments and digital sales have exceeded four million units, according to publisher Square Enix.

The new milestone means 500,000 copies have been shipped or bought digitally since December 2018, when the company announced the game had moved 3.5 million units.

Developed by PlatinumGames, the post-apocalyptic action RPG first released on PS4 in February 2017. It launched on PC the following month before making its way to Xbox One in June 2018. A Game of the Year Edition hit PS4 and PC in February 2019.

PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba recently discussed the company’s collaboration with Square Enix on the project as part of a wide-ranging Platinum Games interview with VGC.

“That series is of course the brainchild of Yoko Taro,” he said. “When we first started talking about doing the project together there was a lot of anxiety, because creators with strong desires and wills don’t often mesh well. So there were initially some fears on the team but we are very fortunate that both sides were able to collaborate.

“Quite frankly, we learned a lot from the experience of working with Square Enix,” Inaba added. “We basically got a different colour of crayon in our Crayola box and were able to attract a different style of demographic that traditionally may not have been fans of PlatinumGames. We were very, very fortunate to be able to collaborate on that title.”

Earlier this week, Square Enix reported an increase in sales for its financial year ended in March 2019, but the publisher said profits fell due to costs associated with launching new games including Kingdom Hearts III, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 4.