Brotaku

Atsushi Inaba, CEO of PlatinumGames, has claimed that the publishing restrictions around Babylon’s Fall hurt the potential of the game and hinted that PlatinumGames and Square Enix, publisher of the game, did not see eye to eye. Despite this Inaba-san has expressed regret and sorrow at the state of the game and says that he understands the disappointment and anger of fans.

Inaba-san claimed that developing a live-service game consists of two pillars, the first of which is the “sheer fun of the core game mechanics” and the second is “performing the live service itself”. Inaba-san went on to say that a live-service game will not succeed unless these pillars are “viewed, treasured, and valued by the same people, on the same team”.

In the case of Babylon’s Fall, PlatinumGames were restricted to only the game development whilst maintenance, marketing and publishing was handled by Square Enix. This was a source of frustration for PlatinumGames, Inaba-san has also claimed that the “concrete reasons or the process” that led to the shutdown of the game will have come from Square Enix.

PlatinumGames has also confirmed that it will not be moving on from live-service tltes and that the studio will learn from Babylon’s Fall. Inaba-san also hinted that PlatinumGames won’t be collaborating with another studio or publisher for its next live-service game because having complete control will result in fewer “frustrations in the long run”.

Inaba-san has also claimed that publishing agreements prevent him from delving into the details of the failure of Babylon’s Fall. The games servers are set to shut down on the 27th of February 2023, making the game unplayable.