Troubled live-service action RPG Babylon’s Fall will close its doors on February 28th 2023, Square Enix and developers Platinum Games have revealed today. The game had struggled to make an impact since its launch on March 3rd earlier this year, with concurrent player counts dropping to zero at times. It hadn’t looked good from the early days when, as we pointed out, Platinum Games were tweeting statements that Babylon’s Fall’s wasn’t “in danger” just two weeks following its launch.
The Babylon’s Fall team began their shutdown announcement by thanking those who’d played the game, which admittedly can’t be a lot of people. They said that, by way of thanks, they’d be bringing as many events and “other initiatives” as they could to Babylon’s Fall before it closes down for good. Season 2 of the game will run as planned until November 29th, when the game’s final season will begin. You can read the announcement and end of service schedule in full here.
Platinum and Squeenix had high hopes for Babylon’s Fall as a live service, as Katharine found out when she spoke to the development team ahead of its launch. The game had the misfortune of arriving within a week of Elden Ring, another fantasy action RPG that dominated the early months of this year. Despite asking players for their feedback on Babylon’s Fall’s graphics, and doubling the length of its second season to reevaluate its future in May, it’s now clear that nothing Platinum or Square Enix had hoped to do was going to save the game.
Babylon’s Fall concurrent player numbers are languishing in the single digits at time of writing, as you can see on SteamDB, and haven’t reached into the hundreds since April. I checked in with Dashiell Wood, who I spoke to when he became Babylon’s Fall’s only concurrent player at one point in May, to get his reaction to the shutdown announcement. “It’s heartbreaking, especially after all the assurances that the service was going to continue earlier this year,” Wood told me.
“I can’t believe that so much hard work from both devs and players is just going to go down the drain like this. It might be wishful thinking, but I’m still hopeful the game will still be playable in an offline state. Some more clarification about what’s going to happen would be great for us final fallers. I suppose it’s inevitable that all live service games will come to an end and, even though I have always loved Platinum and their work, it’s still going to be hard for the company to rebuild that trust.”
In his Babylon’s Fall review back in March, Ed called the game a “live disservice,” saying: “Aside from the teensiest glimpses of what could’ve been, the game is a bemusing cascade of loot and stats that don’t mean all that much. The combat has its moments but is largely bleh. The story is meh. And it’s all yours for £60 – heh?!” I can’t help but feel the game’s name was prophetic.
As of this article’s publication, Babylon’s Fall is still available on Steam for £60/$60/€70. However, digital and physical sales end today. No more in-game currency will be sold from today either. The game shuts down on February 28th, 2023 at 7am GMT, and on February 27th, 2023 at 11pm PT.
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