Online brawler Babylon’s Fall has had trouble drawing players since its March launch after receiving harsh reviews from critics. Less than a year after its initial release, in February 2023, Square Enix officially announced the game’s termination of service. PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba reacted in public for the first time since the shutdown announcement in a new interview with VGC, saying the company was “extremely sorry” for any disappointment it may have caused its fans. Inaba asserted that he was unable to provide in-depth commentary on Babylon’s Fall due to limitations imposed by the publication agreement. The Bayonetta studio’s ambitions to create additional live service games in the future, he assured, have not changed as a result of what Platinum learnt from the experience. The prospective addition of live service games to Platinum’s lineup has never been a secret. Inaba stated to VGC that its experience with Babylon’s Fall hasn’t “at all” altered its goals in this respect. Inaba also talked about some of the lessons it has learned that it would apply moving forward, such as concentrating more on the fundamental gameplay elements of these projects. Additionally, he seemed to hint that he wasn’t necessarily eager to try dividing the burden on such games with an outside business again, as Platinum did with Square Enix. 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. 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.” After a decade of work-for-hire contracts in which it didn’t have control over its own intellectual property, Platinum has been working hard over the past several years to reclaim its independence. It has recently attempted self-publishing with Sol Cresta as part of that, and it has engaged a former Nintendo publication executive to lead its efforts.
