Nier: Automata's Language Patch Ballooned the PC Install to 366GB and Steam Still Says 50GB

By CriticalPixel · 2026-11-06

Square Enix pushed a language patch for Nier: Automata this week and somehow turned a 50GB game into a 366GB problem. The update landed on Steam yesterday to add Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese support. It also, according to both IGN and Eurogamer, applied the full base game to every DLC pack in the YoRHa Edition and then downloaded all of it at once. The result is an install that needs more free space than most people keep on a dedicated games drive, and it arrived with no warning attached.

Official Steam screenshot from Nier: Automata showing 2B in a ruined city

What actually went wrong

The mechanism is a packaging bug rather than a content problem. IGN reports that a fault caused the entire game to be duplicated into every DLC pack included with the PC edition, while Eurogamer describes the same failure as all the YoRHa Edition DLC becoming the same size as the base game, with the new download stacking them concurrently. Three extra language files do not weigh 316GB. The patch shipped without anyone checking what the Steam manifest would ask players to download, and the damage scales with every DLC pack a player owns.

There is no opt out, which is the part that makes it sting. Eurogamer notes the update is not optional, so the 366GB requirement lands whether you want the new languages or not. People who had the game installed and working a week ago are now being told their drive is too small for a title they already own. That is a spectacular own goal for a publisher that has been shipping this game on PC since 2017.

The store page still says 50GB

Here is the detail that should embarrass somebody at Square Enix. Steam's own store page for Nier: Automata still lists 50 GB of available storage space under its system requirements, even though the live build now demands 366GB. The storefront, the patch notes and the actual download are all telling players different stories, and the only one that matters is the one that fills a drive.

Official Steam screenshot from Nier: Automata showing combat against machines

Square Enix has apologized and says it is investigating, according to a statement from its Japanese account quoted by both outlets. The company is also offering a workaround: uncheck the DLC under Steam, Properties, DLC, and download the base game on its own. That gets you a playable copy without deleting your library, which is better than nothing. It also means DLC owners are performing manual surgery to reach a normal install, and it leaves the underlying packaging error in place until a real fix ships.

Steam reviews turned into a roast

The review section has become the main event. IGN collected a batch of negative reviews from players who could not download the game, could not keep it installed, or could not install anything else alongside it, and the jokes are better than the situation deserves. One reviewer wrote that only Square Enix can turn 40GB into 366GB with an 8GB patch. Another said the funniest part is that the Steam page still lists a 50GB storage requirement. A third promised to recommend the game again after it gets fixed, which is about as fair as a review bomb gets.

The reaction on X runs on the same energy, a mix of disbelief and gallows humor rather than outrage. A widely shared post framed the bug as the DLC billing the full install seven times over like a hotel minibar, which is the cleanest summary of the failure anyone has written. Others simply posted the two numbers side by side, 50GB and 366GB, and let the absurdity do the work. Sentiment is overwhelmingly negative toward Square Enix and still affectionate toward the game itself, which matters for how this ages.

Official Steam screenshot from Nier: Automata showing an open area of the world

The CriticalPixel take

This is a self inflicted wound from a publisher that should know better. Nier: Automata is nine years old, it still sells because people genuinely love it, and a three language update is the kind of maintenance work that should be invisible. Instead it became the biggest PC storage story of the week, and the fix is now a public relations exercise rather than a hotfix. Shipping a manifest that duplicates a 50GB game across every DLC pack is not an edge case. It is the sort of thing a single test install on a clean machine would have caught.

The irony is almost too neat. This is a game about androids managing their own operating systems, with an ending built around deleting your own OS, and Square Enix has now shipped a patch that asks players to clear hundreds of gigabytes to keep a machine running. Yoko Taro would probably call it intentional. It is not. It is a pipeline failure wearing a very funny hat, and the difference matters because the joke is on people who paid for the YoRHa Edition and now cannot fit it on a drive.

The practical outcome is probably a quiet fix within days, a corrected manifest, and a store page that finally stops lying about storage. The reputational cost is small in the grand scheme and large in the review section, where the first thing a new buyer sees is a wall of 366GB jokes. Square Enix can survive that. What it should not survive is repeating it, because the next patch has no excuse and the players who defended this game through nine years of ups and downs are the ones who have to delete half their library to keep playing it.