Resellers Beware: Nier Automata Dev Yoko Taro’s Real Autograph Includes ‘Small, Unknown Features’ to Help Spot Fakes

Nier series director Yoko Taro has warned fans to be wary that “nearly half” of the items purporting to be autographed by him include fake signatures.

Responding to a fan on Twitter / X who shared a snap of a signed soundtrack from Nier: Automata on sale for €200 (around $232), Taro revealed that he includes “small, unknown features” in real autographs to prevent precisely this kind of reselling.

“This autograph is a fake. I include small, unknown features in my real autographs to prevent reselling, so I can tell when one isn’t genuine,” he explained. “I’ve confirmed that nearly half of the autographs being resold are actually fake, so please don’t buy them.”

https://twitter.com/yokotaro/status/1980304441493582021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

What, exactly, those “features” are will likely not be known — at least not from Yoko Taro directly, I’d wager — but fans in the comments are trying to compare their autographs nonetheless, cross-referencing their cherished signatures with those known to have been signed by the revered game developer.

What’s Yoko Taro up to these days when he’s not signing things? Last year, Square Enix executive officer and Nier series producer Yosuke Saito teased an upcoming project but refused to say whether it was Nier 3.

“I’ve been talking about wanting to do something with [series director Yoko Taro] and [series composer Keiichi Okabe] for some time now,” Saito said. “I’ll have something a bit more put together to say in the not too distant future, so please stay tuned.” He than laughed: “It might be Nier, it might not be Nier. That’s about all I can say for now.”