{"id":63180,"date":"2026-03-17T09:53:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=63180"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:53:50","slug":"serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese illustrator and game developer MYU recently announced that their web browser-like augmented reality game (ARG), <strong>Sato Killing Time Chat.exe<\/strong>, has amassed over 10,000 downloads on <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4232190\/Sato_Killing_Time_Chatexe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a> in just three days. Released on March 13, it was first conceived roughly five months after their last game, Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo, and took about two months to develop (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/03\/15\/163949.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3297\ufe0f\u3297\ufe0f\u3297\ufe0f\u4f50\u85e4\u3055\u3093\u6687\u3064\u3076\u3057\u30c1\u30e3\u30c3\u30c8.exe<br>\uff11\u4e07DL\u7a81\u7834\uff01\uff01\uff01\uff01\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059\uff01\uff01\uff01<br>\u5f15\u304d\u7d9a\u304d\u4f50\u85e4\u3055\u3093\u3092\u3088\u308d\u3057\u304f\u304a\u9858\u3044\u3044\u305f\u3057\u307e\u3059\uff01<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/%E4%BD%90%E8%97%A4%E3%81%95%E3%82%93%E6%9A%87%E3%81%A4%E3%81%B6%E3%81%97%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%88?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u4f50\u85e4\u3055\u3093\u6687\u3064\u3076\u3057\u30c1\u30e3\u30c3\u30c8<\/a>\u3000<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/%E5%8F%8C%E7%95%B0%E5%85%B8?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u53cc\u7570\u5178<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sAzqc66oWO\">pic.twitter.com\/sAzqc66oWO<\/a><\/p>&mdash; MYU\uff20\u53cc\u7570\u5178 (@myu060309) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/myu060309\/status\/2032955449063211505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 14, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><em>Post translation:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sato Killing Time Chat.exe has gotten over 10,000 downloads! Thank you so much! Please continue to support the game.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea for Sato Killing Time Chat.exe came about when MYU was working on another game that incorporated text-based chat. While it was not the main focus of the other title, MYU wondered if they could create a game that worked primarily using player text inputs. After testing Sato Killing Time Chat.exe with Google\u2019s Gemini Application Programming Interface (API), they saw the potential in the title and decided to develop it as a full-length game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sato Killing Time Chat.exe - Official Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HivQNqO_hWc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspired by Misaki from Welcome to the N.H.K. and Lain from Serial Experiments Lain (according to a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/03\/15\/163949.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">developer interview<\/a>), your chat buddy in Sato Killing Time Chat.exe is the anime girl named \u201cMina\u201d. Estranged from her family and an outcast at school, she asks you to kill time with her through a chat-based app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mina responds to every message you type into the app. Much like a real person would, engaging in topics that Mina dislikes repeatedly can cause her to leave the chat. Get close enough, however, and she will send you pictures of herself as a \u201creward\u201d of sorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the chat app, an in-game web browser lets you search fictional pages about topics you discuss with Mina, as well as engage in some cyber sleuthing of your own. From a shadowy organization known as \u201cA.R.G.\u201d to Mina\u2019s identity, you\u2019ll be searching high and low for the answers to the game\u2019s deepest, darkest mysteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sato Killing Time Chat.exe currently has a \u201cMixed\u201d rating on Steam, with negative reviews centered on its hard-to-understand English translation. Given that this is a type of game that lives or dies based on the readability of its text, here\u2019s hoping that future updates will address these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sato Killing Time Chat.exe is available for Windows (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4232190\/Sato_Killing_Time_Chatexe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":63183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,17],"class_list":["post-63180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-indie-games","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T00:53:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T00:53:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-17T00:53:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-17T00:53:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days","datePublished":"2026-03-17T00:53:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T00:53:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/"},"wordCount":419,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg","keywords":["Indie Games","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/","name":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-17T00:53:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T00:53:50+00:00","description":"Japanese developer MYU announced that their free Steam ARG Sato Killing Time Chat.exe reached over 10,000 downloads in just 3 days.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260316-63180-header.jpg","width":960,"height":540},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/serial-experiments-lain-and-welcome-to-the-nhk-inspired-free-japanese-horror-arg-gets-over-10000-downloads-on-steam-in-just-3-days\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Serial Experiments Lain and Welcome to the NHK-inspired free Japanese horror ARG gets over 10,000 downloads on Steam in just 3 days"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63180"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63254,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63180\/revisions\/63254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}