Babylon’s Fall support ending as servers set to close in February

By George Yang September 13, 2022

Square Enix and PlatinumGames have announced that Babylon’s Fall will end service on February 27, 2023, and the game will be unplayable afterward.

“As a result, we will also cancel the large-scale updates that we had planned. In terms of the plan moving forward, Season 2 will run until Tuesday, November 29, 2022, as scheduled, and the Final Season will begin with the maintenance scheduled on the same day,” Square Enix says in a statement. “This Final Season is the period during which you can earn the ranking rewards of Season 2.”

It is with deep regret that we are terminating the game's service on February 28, 2023.
Please read our full Notice for further information.https://t.co/mvaFYmOkYB
Thank you so much for your support and playing BABYLON'S FALL.

— BABYLON'S FALL (@BabylonsFall_EN) September 13, 2022

Starting today, sales of both the digital and physical versions of Babylon’s Fall will start closing, as well as the sale of the Garaz, the game’s premium currency. When Season 2 ends on November 29, sales of the Premium Battle Pass will cease and the Final Season special rewards will start.

Around December, the end-of-the-year and New Years’ special rewards will appear, along with the second wave of Event Missions in January 2023. When February finally comes around, the third wave of Event Missions will be added. On the very last day, service shuts down at 11 p.m. PT and the “Hanging Garden” player website closes.

Babylon’s Fall has received widespread negative reception since its launch, but PlatinumGames was committed to supporting the title despite that. The development team said in March that it had no plans to reduce the scale of support but has now rescinded that.

The game launched as a full-priced $60 one despite being loaded with microtransactions. It also had to contend with other juggernaut titles released during the same timeframe such as Elden Ring, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and Horizon Forbidden West.

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

Gaming

Here’s why PlatinumGames and Sony are all-in on live service

Warriors look toward a beautiful sunrise and enemies in Babylon's Fall.

PlatinumGames President Atsushi Inaba turned heads in a recent interview when he indicated that the beloved Japanese developer would move away from the kind of single-player games it is known for. While PlatinumGames made a name for itself with linear, single-player action titles like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata, Inaba believes the company should make more titles that players can enjoy for long periods of time.
"When it comes to future game production, we want to focus on creating games that are different from the past," he told Famitsu (VGC translated the comments). "I would like to focus on creating games that can be enjoyed and loved for a longer period of time ... Considering the changes in the market over the next five years or so, I think it is absolutely necessary for us to do this."
Some fans fear this means PlatinumGames is about to embrace the live service segment of the video game market. This is worrying to some as Babylon's Fall, the first game of this kind for PlatinumGames, is shaping up to be a disappointing endeavor. Meanwhile, the single-player Bayonetta 3 looks like the kind of fast fun fans come to expect from the studio.
PlatinumGames isn't the only studio chasing the live service dream. Sony is doubling down even more. After acquiring Destiny developer Bungie, Sony Chief Financial Officetr Hiroki Totoki revealed that PlayStation Studios plans to release 10 live service games by March 2026.
Games like this are controversial because they're monetized, and they vary vary in quality. You either end up a great success like Final Fantasy XIV or become an expensive failure like Anthem and Marvel's Avengers. So why are so many companies still pivoting to this model after high-profile disasters and disdain from hardcore gamers?
It pays to win
The answer is more straightforward than one might think. In reality, it comes down to what makes money. Yes, single-player games can still be successful and perform well for companies, but data from analysts highlights how much the DLC, microtransactions, and subscription elements of live service games make. Mat Piscatella, NPD Group executive director and video game industry adviser, explained this on Twitter, noting that 60% of non-mobile game content spending comes from DLC, microtransactions, and subscriptions.
https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1490711392449486851
It's not surprising that PlatinumGames executives see that the studio is leaving money on the table by not developing games that engage players like that. Bayonetta 3 could sell millions of copies when it launches later this year, but live service games could sell the same amount and then continue to make money years after launch.
Multiple analysts have recognized this trend too. Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted a chart revealing that Sony made more from add-ons, microtransaction, and DLC content than digital and physical game sales combined.
https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1490714400000512005
To stay appealing to investors and keep the business afloat, companies will go where the money is. This approach, unfortunately, can have some harmful side effects. We've seen it happen more recently with NFTs, but there's a history of live service games gone wrong as well. High-profile live service games like Anthem and Marvel's Avengers have failed because they got bogged down in nickel-and-diming players or did not ensure the quality of gameplay increased with the length. If your game isn't fun, no one's going to want to spend hundreds of hours in it just because they can eventually unlock some cool-looking things.
Babylon's Fall currently seems like it may not do well, so PlatinumGames needs to focus on quality if it continues to go down this path.
Quality over quantity
DLC and microtransactions do have a bad rap around the video game industry for a good reason. When companies merely focus on player engagement and sales data, they often forget to make games that players will enjoy. The best approach for Sony and PlatinumGames is to make sure the gameplay, story, and worlds are a lot of fun before they stretch the experience to last a long time. It also seems likely that neither PlatinumGames nor Sony should completely abandon the types of games they are known for.
In the same interview with Famitsu, Inaba states that PlatinumGames "would like to cherish and create small but brilliantly conceived games such as Sol Cresta, and games in which you can enjoy the process of clearing the game by going through one-off, well-designed stages, such as Bayonetta." Inaba also wants the games to feel like what the studio is known for, saying, "I want to lead PlatinumGames in a direction that is pure and unadulterated."
While Babylon's Fall makes this trend look worrying, we don't know if that's the only way PlatinumGames plans to create games that players engage with for a long time. PlatinumGames must learn from the shortcomings of Babylon's Fall and improve if it doesn't want to release a string of live service flops.
Meanwhile, live service will be just one part of Sony's first-party game strategy in the future. While the Bungie acquisition may allow the company to make more live service games, plenty of single-player PS5 exclusives like Horizon Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are still on the way. Sony also intentionally acquired Bungie because of its live service experience with games like Destiny 2, so it wants to approach that kind of game correctly.
We've seen plenty of companies get the live service model wrong as it's a high-risk, high-reward market. To stay relevant, PlatinumGames and Sony might have to embrace forever games more than their fans may prefer. Still, if making great, fun games remains a priority, these companies shouldn't go off the rails anytime soon. They'll just make more money while doing it.

Gaming

Babylon’s Fall has strong combat, but lacks Platinum’s signature style

Characters face off in Babylon's Fall.

Imagine a chair. Like, a really good chair. The kind of chair that your Pop-pop used to have. The one that he would sit in for hours watching Mel Brooks films and sipping on his “adult juice." This chair has everything you need. Soft cushions, a heating pad, reclining mode, and excellent lumbar support. Now, start to strip away all of its components, remove everything that doesn’t serve its function as a chair. What you're left with is a hunk of mass that you can sit on. That's how I'd describe Babylon’s Fall in its current state: Technically a chair.

Platinum Games recently held a closed beta event for Babylon’s Fall, where players got a brief peek at what the game looks like and feels like. The Bayonetta developer is highly regarded as a development studio that focuses on high-speed and visceral combat that's filled with flamboyant flair. The beta test for Babylon's Fall strips away most of everything that Platinum Games is known for, and mainly showcases its combat, with very little fanfare.

Gaming

Everything announced at Square Enix’s E3 showcase

The full squad in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Coming hot of the heels of Microsoft and Bethesda's jam-packed E3 showcase, Square Enix delivered its own livestream full of announcements. Like its recent Square Enix Presents stream presentation, it was a tight 40-minute show that focused on a handful of upcoming titles.

Much of the news was expected, as Square Enix shared the itinerary beforehand. A large chunk of the stream was dedicated to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a new single-player game from Eidos. Life is Strange: True Colors and Babylon's Fall were a a big part of the show as well. There was only one surprise, though it had leaked beforehand: Final Fantasy Origin. Here's a full breakdown of the breezy E3 showcase.