If you don’t know about the drama surrounding PlatinumGames’ Babylon’s Fall game, the studio announced earlier this month that it would be shutting down the live-service game in February next year. Babylon’s Fall launched in March this year and was immediately deemed a failure right out of the game. Its live-service monetization coupled with its heavy price tag meant games simply didn’t pick it up and it resulted in a server will less than 10 players in the game at the busiest times.
Earlier this month, developer Platinum Games announced it would be shutting down the game permanently and for the first time since the announcement, PlatinumGames’ CEO has commented on the closure.
MORE BABYLON’S FALL – Babylon’s Fall Services to Shut Down in February 2023
In an interview with VGC, PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba says that the developer is “extremely sorry” for any disappointment that the closure might have caused its fans. He says that previous contract agreements prevented him from talking about Babylon’s Fall and the shutdown taking place in February of next year. However, he says it is important to know that no changes have been made to other games developed at PlatinumGames.
“Firstly, the important thing that I want to note is that we’re not able to comment on certain areas of games developed with our partners. And that’s one of the reasons we’re not fond of our current situation that only limits us to game development, to be honest with you… in terms of any concrete reasons or the process that led to this conclusion of the title, you’d have to go ahead and ask Square Enix about the details, unfortunately”
Inaba says that the only thing he can comment on is the closure of Babylon’s Fall service. He continued:
“The only thing we can comment on here in terms of the closure of the Babylon’s Fall service itself, is that this unfortunate conclusion might have been something that had triggered some disappointment, perhaps maybe even anger, to our dedicated fans and players. And any disappointment that we might have caused for our fan base is something we feel extremely sorry about, the fact that we led our dedicated fans to feel that way as a developer. Providing any sentiment other than enjoyment and fun in our creations to players is something that we’re not very happy about at all as a developer”
While Babylon’s Fall failed at launch, Inaba says the closure of the game will not change PlatinumGames’ approach to live service titles. In fact, he says that the lessons they have learnt from Babylon’s Fall will be used in future projects.
“There’s a lot that we learned from this experience, and it’s not changed our future plans or outlook moving forward regarding doing live service games at all. Live service games are definitely something we do want to do and put our effort in moving forward. There are two pillars, so to speak, that we can look at internally for our development teams, that being the people within the same company. The first is just the sheer fun of the core game mechanics that you have in the live service game and secondly, performing the live service itself.
The PlatinumGames CEO also claims that Babylon’s Fall issues would not have happened if the studio had more control over the project. He seemingly suggests that Square Enix had a lot to do with how the game was delivered and ultimately, how it failed.
“Keeping this answer limited to Babylon’s Fall would skewer the discussion I think, but similar to what I said, if you’re a developer and also the publisher, your role obviously does change. But it doesn’t mean that even if you have ultimate control of the title that you’re not going to have any frustrations in the long run, regardless of whether you are a developer or a publisher. If we hypothetically were to do everything on our own to develop the game, with full control, then if we failed it’s pretty much 100% on us and if we succeed it was basically on us. And we are not viewing ourselves as ‘special’ in any kind of way if we were to go ahead and do everything ourselves.
