NieR: Automata Now Asks for 366 GB on Steam After a Language Update: Where the Number Comes From, How to Install It at Normal Size, and Why I Think the Real Surprise Is How Believable It Sounded

A nine-year-old action RPG just asked Steam players for more free space than GTA 6 is reported to need. It sounds like a joke, and in a way it is, but it’s also a real prompt on real screens. After a language update this week, Steam began telling players that NieR: Automata needs 366.56 GB to install, up from roughly 50 GB. Square Enix has acknowledged the problem, apologized and posted a workaround.

I want to do three things here: show where the number appears to come from, walk you through installing the game at its normal size, and explain why I think the most revealing part of this story isn’t the bug at all. It’s how many of us believed 366 GB without blinking. One honest note before we start: I haven’t tested this on my own PC. This piece is built from reporting by Automaton West, GamesRadar, Video Games Chronicle, GameSpot, 3DNews and others, plus Square Enix’s statement as those outlets quote it. The arithmetic, the situation guide and the verdict are mine.

The 9× is my own division: 366.56 ÷ 40.73 comes out at 9.0. The 40.73 GB figure is RPG Site’s, as relayed by 3DNews. The five-year gap is from Automaton West, which dates the previous Steam update to July 15, 2021.

What happened: a language patch, an 8 GB update and a 366 GB prompt

NieR: Automata’s Steam version received its first update in five years this week. The last one was July 15, 2021, according to Automaton West. This one, which Square Enix dates to Nov. 6 in Japan time, adds Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese text. 3DNews says the update itself came in at about 8 GB, which players noticed was a lot for three languages.

Then came the install screen. Steam started asking for 366.56 GB, while the store page, according to Video Games Chronicle, still lists 50 GB. RPG Site tested it, as VGC and GameSpot report, and found the requirement was real on the Steam client. GamesRadar tried reinstalling the game and saw the same number.

Square Enix responded the same day on the official Japanese NieR account on X. In translation, it said it had identified an issue where installation requires significantly more storage than intended, was investigating the cause and apologized for the inconvenience. It also posted a temporary workaround, which I’ll walk through below. None of the coverage I read includes a fix date from Square Enix.

The receipt: where 366 GB comes from

Here’s the part I enjoyed. 3DNews, relaying RPG Site’s finding, says the base game is listed at 40.73 GB and that each DLC entry in Steam’s DLC manager now shows that same 40.73 GB. Automaton West describes the same pattern: eight DLC entries whose listed sizes grew to match the base game. Count the base game plus eight DLC as nine entries of 40.73 GB each, and the total is 366.57 GB by my multiplication. Steam says 366.56. The hundredth-of-a-gigabyte gap is rounding.

This graphic is my own illustration of the reported pattern. I numbered the DLC entries for the picture only; Steam lists them by name.

I’m treating that as a strong clue, not a diagnosis. Square Enix hasn’t said what went wrong. GamesRadar’s read, that the whole game appears to be attached to each DLC entry, fits the numbers, but it’s an outside theory and not a confirmed cause. Still, a match that tidy makes me doubt the real explanation is far off.

Three numbers, one game: which one is real?

Most of the confusion comes from three different figures floating around at once. Here is which is which.

So as best anyone can tell from the reports, the requirement grew, not the game. That distinction matters, because it’s the difference between “my drive is about to fill up” and “Steam’s arithmetic is off.”

Will it fill my drive? Where the reports disagree

This is where the coverage splits, and I’d rather show you the split than pick a side I can’t prove.

Automaton West says the game and its DLC only take up around 40 to 50 GB once installed, and that 366 GB is a prerequisite shown when you try to install everything at once. GamesRadar, looking at the same screen, speculated that the game seemed to be attached to the DLC files over and over, which could mean downloading it seven times, while also noting the game appears playable if you have the space or skip the DLC. VGC says some players report the issue gone while others still see the inflated figure. VGTimes goes further and says the error has affected some players’ ability to install or launch the game and prompted negative Steam reviews.

My read: reports differ on how hard the bug bites, and Square Enix hasn’t explained the mechanism. So I’d treat 366 GB as a number to avoid, not a number to plan around. If you want to know what’s really on your drive, Steam’s own storage page in Settings lists the installed size of each game.

How to install it at normal size

This is Square Enix’s own temporary workaround, as quoted by GamesRadar and Automaton West. It takes about a minute.

1. Open your Steam library

   Right-click NieR: Automata and choose Properties.

2. Go to the DLC tab

   You’ll see the game’s add-on entries listed with checkboxes.

3. Untick every DLC

   Square Enix says this lets you download the base game using the intended amount of storage.

4. Install the game as usual

   The prompt should now ask for roughly the normal amount of space. GameSpot points out the catch: unticked DLC means that content isn’t available until you add it back.

What about adding the DLC afterward? Automaton West suggests you can re-tick them once the base game is installed and download them without worrying about the inflated requirement. Square Enix hasn’t said that’s safe, and it calls the workaround temporary. If you want the DLC, I’d re-tick one entry at a time and read the size Steam shows before confirming. If the number looks absurd, stop and wait.

Three situations, three pieces of advice

Which advice fits depends on where you are right now. This guide is mine, built on what the outlets report.

My take: why 366 GB was so easy to believe

Here’s what stuck with me. Nobody laughed this off as impossible. People posted screenshots, shrugged and started clearing space. That says a lot about where we are. GTA 6 is reported at more than 200 GB, as I covered in my GTA 6 file-size guide. Phantom Blade Zero’s PC install is reported at about 145 GB, with 300 GB of free space recommended for pre-loading, as I wrote in my Phantom Blade Zero review roundup. In a stretch like that, a 2017 game asking for 366 GB doesn’t sound absurd. It sounds like the next item on the list.

I find that more interesting than the bug itself. We’ve been trained, one giant download at a time, to treat storage numbers as a bill we simply pay. A prompt that should have raised eyebrows got a sigh instead. If publishers want one lesson from this, mine is that when your honest numbers keep growing, your mistaken ones stop looking suspicious.

On Square Enix, I’ll give credit where it’s due. The acknowledgment was fast, the workaround takes seconds and the apology was plain. What I can’t wave away is that the first Steam update in five years went out with a size display this wrong. A glance at the DLC tab on a test build might have caught it, though I can’t know what testing the company did. I’m not calling it a scandal. It reads like a packaging mistake, and those happen to big publishers. It’s just a reminder that old games kept alive by small patches deserve a last look before they ship.

One more thing, because it’s an obvious question: a few Steam reviewers joked that automated tools were behind the mess. Nothing in the reporting supports that, and Square Enix hasn’t said what happened, so I’d leave it as a joke.

My own guess, and it is only a guess, is that this gets sorted without much drama and the update gets remembered for what it was meant to do. Players who read Korean or Chinese now have text in their language on the Steam version of a game that has earned its place on a lot of best-ever lists. That part is good news, and it’s a shame it got buried under a number.

Confirmed, reported and still unknown

Not every fact in this story is equally firm, so I sorted them instead of blending them together.

Quick answers