Tencent Ditches Square Enix 'Nier' Mobile Game to Look for Crowd-Puller

Tencent Games reportedly stopped the development of Square Enix's "Nier" game title. This is a highly anticipated mobile game, but three sources who know the matter shared that the former has already ditched the project.

According to Reuters, Tencent canceled the game even though it had already been in the works for almost two years. The insiders said the company axed the project because it had difficulty finding a crucial monetization model, considering the development was very costly. Moreover, they also need to work on many things for franchise rights.

Canceled "Nier" Franchise Game

The publication contacted Tencent and Square Enix for comments, but both parties declined the requests. At any rate, the latter said last year that "Nier: Automata," the latest title in the "Nier" game franchise, has sold more than 7.5 million copies since its launch in 2017. It is available for both PC and console gaming formats.

Canceling the supposed follow-up title shows fissures in the Szenchen-based game company's strategy of turning consoles and PC hit titles into mobile games. Tencent spent massive sums to sign licensing deals with franchises, and at times, it was even willing to pay extra just to outbid some rivals, such as NetEase.

With the axing of the "Nier" game, time and money have been wasted, mainly because even the playable demo is already complete. If there is any good thing coming from this move, it would be the fact that the people working on this project will not be terminated. Instead, they can transfer to other divisions within Tencent's organization.

Tencent Looking to Acquire Hasbro's "Dungeons & Dragons"

After discontinuing the development of the "Nier" game, IGN India reported that Tencent is now looking to acquire "Dungeons & Dragons," a fantasy tabletop role-playing game owned by Hasbro. The company will buy IP rights, and the game will probably be adapted for mobile gaming.

The acquisition will expand Tencent's wide-ranging portfolio of game intellectual properties. Since the company is searching for new hit titles, "Dungeons & Dragons" fits the bill. However, reports state that Hasbro is also offering the IP for the game to Larian Studios so that the bids could go high.

Photo by: Sean Do/Unsplash