PlatinumGames CEO apologizes for the death of Babylon’s Fall

pcinvasion.com:

Babylon’s Fall has officially gone down as perhaps the biggest blunder that PlatinumGames has faced. It received a sound thrashing for its cynical live service elements and overall poor design, and only saw an infinitesimal amount of current players throughout its lifespan. This abysmal performance culminated in the announcement that Square Enix would take the game’s servers offline in February 2023, not even a full year after its launch. PlatinumGames mostly remained tight-lipped ever since this announcement, but CEO Atsushi Inaba finally spoke about the impending closure of Babylon’s Fall today, saying the developers feel “extremely sorry.”

In an interview with VGC, Inaba stated that he couldN’t talk about certain aspects of Babylon’s Fall’s development due to the studio’s publishing agreement with Square Enix. He can only discuss the closure itself, which he acknowledged may have led to disappointment or even anger among fans. He expressed his apologies toward those fans specifically, as the developers do not enjoy the prospect of “providing any sentiment other than enjoyment and fun” through their work.

If you wondered if Babylon’s Fall’s closure would deter PlatinumGames from developing more live-service titles, the answer, according to Inaba, is no. He stated that PlatinumGames has learned quite a few lessons that it will incorporate into its future live-service titles, which include putting more focus on their core gameplay.

Inaba went on to say that there exist two pillars of live-service games development that the studio has to focus on: the fun derived from the gameplay mechanics and the execution of the live service elements. He feels that the pillars have “to be strongly connected internally” and valued