N January 2014, after the release of Drakengard 3, Yoko expressed an interest in making a second spin-off from the Drakengard series but did not specify whether it would be related to Nier. In December of that year, he confirmed he was working on a new game but did not reveal more details. Nier: Automata was first announced at Square Enix's press conference at E3 2015 under the provisional title Nier New Project, with staff later confirming it was 10% complete