Square Enix insists Babylon’s Fall’s future ‘not in danger’, despite tough start

Square Enix and PlatinumGames have insisted that Babylon’s Fall development is not in danger, despite a hugely negative critical reception and modest player numbers.

Babylon’s Fall released earlier this month and was widely-panned by critics. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the title is by far the worst reviewed game so far on PS5 and the worst game of the year.

The high level of criticism appears to be reflected in the player numbers for the title on PC. According to SteamDB, Babylon’s Fall’s peak concurrent players haven’t gone above 500 for days, just weeks from launch.

The title’s poor reception has seemingly encouraged Square Enix to address its future plans for the title, with a Twitter image published on Friday titled: “Is the continuing service in danger?”

The post insists that there are “no plans to reduce the scale of development” on Babylon’s Fall, and claims that content up until the game’s second season is “practically complete”, with work on Season 3 already started.

“We will continue to provide new content for the game and make improvements based on player feedback, striving to keep existing players playing and to attract newcomers,” the post reads.

Earlier this week, the Babylon’s Fall development team asked players for their feedback on the game and a new development update published on Friday details some of the changes it will be making.

Among the changes already made are reductions to enemy health to make the game more viable for solo play, and later this month enemies and “gimmicks” will be reduced in the game’s campaign.

Another future feedback update will make adjustments to the game’s graphics and more, and the dev team says it’s looking into a large number of feedback issues including accessibility options, PC optimisation and more.

Further reading

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Launch Review: Babylon’s Fall is a dull and cynical service game

At launch, this is dated, consistently dull and features the most average PlatinumGames combat we can remember

“In the future, Babylon’s Fall will almost certainly be frequently used as an example of how not to launch a live service game,” opens VGC’s review of the game.

“Not only does it fail at the most basic elements, such as a visual style that’s incredibly unappealing, or a mission structure that is somehow both dreadfully short and tedious, but the game also tries desperately to establish itself as a live game, filling your screen with as many opportunities to micro-transact as it can, despite the fact it actually costs $60 to purchase.”