Square Enix had already irritated plenty of fans with its April Fools’ joke teasing a supposed new entry called NieR: Cosmic Horror, only to confirm a few hours later that the whole thing was fake. Now the mess has become even murkier, because a separate website with a countdown has appeared and is trying to make that nonexistent game look real.

If you follow the NieR series, you have probably already seen Square Enix’s April Fools’ stunt. The publisher released an extremely short teaser hinting at a new installment called NieR: Cosmic Horror, then later stepped in to clarify that it was nothing more than a joke. Fans did not take it especially well. The response was a mix of disappointment, frustration, and criticism, which is hardly surprising when people have been waiting for a proper new NieR for this long and the publisher decided to dangle one in front of them for laughs.

The problem is that someone has now decided to keep the bit going. A website has appeared for the nonexistent NieR: Cosmic Horror, complete with the game’s title, the eerie creature seen in Square Enix’s original joke teaser, and a countdown that ends on April 22, 2026, at midnight in Spanish Peninsula time. The site also displays Square Enix-related branding and quick links to social media channels, so at a quick glance it is designed to look just credible enough to stir up fresh speculation among fans who are already primed to believe almost anything at this point.

Everything points to the site being fake

Players did what players always do and immediately started digging. The results are suspicious enough that, barring a truly bizarre twist, everything points to the site being fake and unrelated to Square Enix. Even though the company had already publicly denied that NieR: Cosmic Horror was a real project, users found that the domain in question was created on April 1, after the Japanese publisher had already posted its April Fools’ joke. On top of that, while most of the ownership data is hidden, it has still been confirmed that the site was registered in Wales, in the UK. That is not impossible in a technical sense, but it is a strange fit for what would supposedly be an official page for a major Japanese franchise.

So the most likely explanation is the simplest one: somebody saw Square Enix light a match and decided to dump more fuel on the fire. That also helps explain why the community reaction has been so sharp. Square Enix recently added to the tension by releasing a video suggesting that NieR: Automata “will continue”. For a game that has sold more than 10 million copies, spawned a mountain of collaborations, and left a lasting mark on the medium, that kind of wording was always going to send fans into overdrive. There is clearly a real audience ready to throw money at a new NieR the second it becomes real, which is exactly why this kind of trolling lands so badly.

Right now, though, the safest reading is that the countdown site leads nowhere official. And if that is true, someone has managed to take Square Enix’s already clumsy joke and make it even more irritating.

Source: 3DJuegos