It’s March 31 as I write this here in the States, and April 1 already in a number of other countries. That means here in the IGN newsroom, we’re being extra careful about inadvertently falling for news tricks – fake stories, silly goofs from companies, and so forth. Most of the ones I’ve seen so far are all in good fun, but there’s one…maybe trick? Probably?…that’s getting under my skin today. I’m referring to this:
【NieR 新プロジェクト 制作血定】
虚無に生まれるは、希望か。
それとも、救済という名の絶望か。━━━Coming Soon…… pic.twitter.com/nBdtqQEF12
— NieR公式PRアカウント (@NieR_JPN) March 31, 2026
This is a tease for some sort of Nier project called Nier: Cosmic Horror. And as hopeful as one might be that this finally means another Nier game, Nier fans know that the odds are not in their favor on this one. Because we’ve been here before.
Square Enix and series director Yoko Taro are always doing this. The Nier series is deeply beloved by its fans, and the one thing everyone wants most is a brand new, AAA, PC and console game that picks up the series where it left off in Automata, or at least a few millenia later. But for years, Square has been playing this weird game of teasing new Nier project after new Nier project, only for each one to be something…non-game-like. A concert tour. A book. A stage play. An anime. A comic. A crossover event. A bunch of weird lore dropped on a website that went nowhere. And so forth.
Don’t get me wrong, all of these things are very cool. It’s rad that the Nier universe is big enough to contain multitudes of multimedia, and that fans can enjoy a lot of different flavors of Nier. I’ve been to a Nier orchestra concert, and it rules. I also deeply loved Nier: Reincarnation, a mobile game that’s a very direct sequel to Automata, which was shut down in April 2024. But none of these things are the core game Nier that fans have been requesting for nearly a decade now.
So what is Cosmic Horror? I don’t know, man. It could be any one of the things I listed above, or some other new, weird art project in the universe. We already know there’s another orchestra tour coming around this year, which will include some new episodic story content in the Nier universe. Heck, it could have something to do with this post by The Weeknd, who was video chatting with Yoko Taro for some reason:
It also could be an April Fool’s joke! Most companies have gotten away from proper fake-outs in recent years, ever since several studios found out that people were getting genuinely excited about the joke games and were sad when they didn’t get made (or, in one case, thrilled when it did). Still, Square Enix and Nier especially don’t seem to be above taunting their fans, so if this turns out to be all a cheap trick on April 2, I wouldn’t be surprised. But also, as many fans are pointing out on the Nier subreddit, announcing something big on April Fools Day is the sort of wacky thing creator Yoko Taro would do. Which leaves us right back where we started: confused, frustrated, and wanting more Nier.
Personally, I desperately want more Nier video games, but I’ve had my hopes dashed one too many times to really think this is anything. I do believe that one day we will get a new Nier game – Automata sold 10 million copies, they’d be silly not to make one. And Yoko Taro has said he keeps trying to start new projects, but they keep getting canceled on him, so I’m sure he’s trying his best. But until I see actual gameplay on an official channel on a day that isn’t April 1, I’m going to assume no news is no news. I’m just gonna crank up the volume on Weight of the World and cry a few more times about it.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
