In 2021, the NieR franchise is well known in the video game sector, thanks to NieR Automata, the second installment of the franchise developed for Platinum Games, creators of games such as Bayonetta, Vanquish or Metal Gear Rising. This sequel was recognized worldwide by both specialized critics and users, which has caused Square Enix to finally launch a remake of the first installment.
However, despite the success of NieR Automata, reaching 5 million copies sold, it does not find justification in the popularity of the first title in the series, which suffered a very different fate from that of the Platinum Games game, being only recognized by a small part of fans.
Due to this, there are many aspects of NieR that today are totally unknown by most users who, now, are fans of a franchise created by Yoko Taro. Today we want to tell you precisely about one of those “secrets”, and that is how NieR could be exclusive to Xbox.
NieR could be exclusive to Xbox
As any gamer who has lived through the seventh generation of consoles will know, the launch of Xbox 360 had a maxim that many fans of Microsoft consoles energetically request today: the commitment to the Japanese market.
With the launch of its second console, Microsoft decided to invest a large part of its investment in obtaining a significant number of oriental games, thus trying to expand its audience and try to gain a foothold in the Japanese market, something tremendously complicated due to the success of the companies homelands like Nintendo or Sony.
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Despite this, Microsoft bet for several years with works of great importance and praised by the public, such as Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon, the former being precisely one of the reasons why NieR could be exclusive to Xbox.
Given the expansion that we were now citing, the study of the work created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Kiyoshi Shigematsu, Mistwalker, had an important collaboration with Microsoft for Xbox 360. But why could this influence NieR to have been exclusive to Xbox? The answer is found thanks to Nicolas Turcev and his book “Yoko Taro’s Strange Work: From Drakengard to NieR Automata”.
At the time when Cavia, the study behind the development of NieR, was developing the first installment of the franchise, this company was included in a conglomerate of Japanese studies under the parent company AQ Interactive, a publisher who also managed Mistwalker.
Given the work that the creators of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon had previously done with Xbox 360, NieR’s initial approach was to make the title an exclusive game for the Microsoft console. However, a series of events led to the title finally seeing the light as a multiplatform game.
All of this started with the original approach to the play, under which the title would star a 16-year-old who should find a cure for his sister. Under this idea, Yoko Taro traveled to the offices of Square Enix America to present his project, receiving a small refusal from the dome: the protagonist did not convince.
From the executive it was made known to Yoko Taro that the appearance of the young NieR would not convince the western public, due to his fragile appearance, which forced the developer to make a new version of the protagonist of the title, in this way the two versions emerged that finally hit the market: NieR Gestalt, starring a father NieR, and NieR Replicant, starring a brother NieR. After receiving the OK from Square Enix, Cavia went to work with a version of PlayStation 3 to ensure the commercial success of the title.
However, this version was on the verge of not reaching the market, because from the western offices of Square Enix it was questioned that the title would reach the market in time, but after the insistence of Yoko Taro, especially because the console version Sony would be the only one that would have the story starring the brother NieR, that is, the original approach of the director, finally it was decided to make the two versions.
In other words, in addition to the search for the economic viability of the title, it was this small “disagreement” between Square Enix and Yoko Taro that caused NieR did not end up arriving as an exclusive Xbox 360 title.
