You can’t call the Japanese developer Yoko Taro lazy, even though his last big hit came out more than eight years ago.
Yoko Taro, the creator of NieR: Automata, has worked on several projects since its 2017 release, but we haven’t seen them because they were canceled before their official announcement. Yoko Taro addressed the situation that had become a joke among his fans: he had not been working on any games in recent years. He explained that he had been working on several projects, but they were canceled before their release for reasons he could not or would not disclose.
“People often tell me things like, ‘Why aren’t you making a new NieR sequel?’ or ‘Yoko Taro isn’t doing anything,’ but that’s because many projects I was involved in were discontinued midway through development recently. I’ve actually been working on some projects; they just never saw the light of day. I got paid for it, so personally, I have no issues with that. However, people seem to think that I haven’t been doing anything just because none of my work is being released. I don’t view that as a negative thing. If I’m going to release something weird, I’d be better off not releasing anything at all,” the developer said.
Unfortunately, it’s a reality of the modern gaming industry that even a developer of his caliber can work in the industry for years and have nothing to show for it. This is because the game may never appear. Most non-public projects are locked behind non-disclosure agreements and bureaucracy. To an outside observer, it may seem as if he has done nothing for most of the decade. It’s worth noting that there have been several rumors about Yoko Taro’s projects in recent years. Some of these may be the canceled project he referred to here. Regardless, it seems that Yoko Taro took the idea so seriously that he sat idle for years and felt he needed to explain why we haven’t seen anything he’s been working on lately.
We’ll have to continue being patient and hope that at least one of his projects will reach players.
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