Death of a Game: Babylon's Fall

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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
Sources:
steamcharts.com/app/889750#allah store.steampowered.com/app/88...
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ba...
www.pcgamer.com/babylons-fall...
www.ign.com/articles/babylons...
www.metacritic.com/game/plays...
• Video
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinu...
/ babylonsfall_en
steamcommunity.com/app/889750...
steamcommunity.com/app/889750...
www.pcgamesn.com/babylons-fal...
steamcommunity.com/app/889750...
www.gamesradar.com/babylons-f...
www.eurogamer.net/babylons-fa...
www.rockpapershotgun.com/baby...
www.polygon.com/e3/22533136/b...
• BABYLON'S FALL All Cut...
• Babylon's Fall Review
• Video
www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-so...
kotaku.com/elden-ring-sales-c...
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/me...
store.steampowered.com/news/a...
www.videogameschronicle.com/n...
www.vg247.com/babylons-fall-b...
www.gamesradar.com/after-disa...

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Head to thld.co/geologie_nerd_0722 and take their free skincare quiz to save up to 50% off on your 30 days trial. Even better, join their new Geologie Galaxie community for more daily tips, giveaways and more at discord.gg/geologie. Thanks to Geologie for sponsoring today’s video! And thanks to the detectives of this channel that make the series possible in more ways than one.

[@jorge15266]

Hey nerdSlayer. Just curious, but would you be interested in adding Spanish CCs to your videos? Aside from the ones you currently have, since I believe they're automated and not all that great. I can email you with further info, if this is something that you'd be interested in, of course.

[@leonardovivas9631]

I hope you get better soon

[@alfreddrewes9362]

Didn't Elden Ring release in late February? That what it says on Steam anyway. You're point about BF releasing at or around the same time of ER not being a good thing still stands.

[@GGplathoresy]

It’s Happening….👀 ( Sorry you got Covid man, glad you feeling better I hope lol)

[@KaiserAfini]

Would it be possible to look into Dissidia NT ? The series had two strong games and then NT completely lost its vision, it would be fascinating to examine hiw it came to be with a fine tooth comb.

[@Bimpy96]

Hard to say this game died when it never even was alive in the first place

[@MidwayWuzzupman]

Dead on Arrival

[@itsjustjawk]

Spawnkilled

[@Peasant_of_Pontus]

Stillborn

[@robinmattheussen2395]

Yeah it crashed and burned on the runway. The sad part is that pretty much everyone who played this in preview/beta predicted that this was going to be DOA. It seems like everyone knew this was going to be yet another Square Enix GAS flop.

[@Nathan_Coley]

It was definitely DOA.

[@ShahbazBokhari]

“Game As A Service” is turning into an oxymoron. There’s seldom ever an actual game nor a reliable service to go with it.

[@ddjsoyenby]

agreed just give us a f**K1ng game.

[@XenosImplyer]

Yep, they fail as single-player games and can barely be counted as multiplayer. They are just a shitty ploy to force a multiplayer or freemium monetisation model on a most of the time mediocre and bland single-player game.

[@GodChaos333]

True. When I hear games as a service. I see it as a huge negative these days. A story that will just be dropped one day, and new content many months between each other when hype and fun is gone. No thanks. Seen it happen too many times

[@thomasdr08]

It kills me that devs act like it’s something new. Games have been maintained online as a service for decades. It seems like they just want to reword it to justify charging for things that were built into the original purchase price

[@canyouwavedash3298]

a moment of silence to all the monster hunter clones that didn't try to nickle and dime their fans for just wanting to play co-op arpgs

[@darthcinema4262]

A game nobody wanted, and one that died fast. Hope you feel better soon dude. Your videos rule.

[@freezingcicada6852]

I like Platnium Games. But I didnt even know they made this or it even existed.

[@caiuscosades8538]

@@freezingcicada6852 I got to know about it after it flopped, since everyone dogpiled on it on yt

[@Markm8]

I was one of like 19k people who recommended it for this exact reason

[@sigh1685]

Your comment sounds like a haiku

[@GELTONZ]

I kinda wanted it. I love multiplayer dungeon crawlers and Platinum games and always wanted them to make a game like this...only for it to be Online Only. With so many people dunking on this game before it even came out, I knew it was doomed and I'd be wasting my money if I bought it. If it has ANY sort of offline support? I would have bought it. If it was Free To Play? I would have played it. But $60 for a doomed game? Nope.

[@TheMaghorn]

Even if it hadn't just flopped, games as a service meant it was always going to die. The label just screams "This game is disposable, don't get invested!" in my eyes.

[@ImTheMan0fSteel]

The, fuck games as a service, drones are so cringe. You're delusional.

[@devonwilliams5738]

Same here. I've learned my lesson.

[@BasiliskEye84]

Not defending any of these recent games but at the same time I find the entire GAAS label an oddity. MMORPGs and online only games have existed for well over 25 years. the Original Phantasy Star Online was a full price retail game with a subscription fee. Yeah it had a (extremely boring) offline singleplayer mode, but nobody was buying that game for that. nobody really scoffs at the concept of an always online MMO with live service monetization, and with the extremely wide definition of what the criteria for a game to be considered MMO even is, I feel like a lot of the vitriol this new wave of live service model games get would just not be there if they were simply marketed as MMORPGs. Throw a social hub in Marvel Avengers and market it as an MMO, it still would have sucked, but I feel like it wouldn't have been held up as the poster child of everything wrong with the industry right now, it would have just been another online game that online game players would have tried and quietly moved on from.

[@planescaped]

@@BasiliskEye84 The entire industry has changed a lot since then, release some of those games now and people would have a problem with them.

[@lunadead]

The reason why people have a problem with it is just due to the fact that not every game needs multiplayer aspect or internet only connection to play unless it make sense to add it. 9 times out of 10, games like this are just not lucrative in long term...unless you are the big ones that many people pick to play.

[@samvimes9510]

The strangest part about the visual style is that back when Platinum was Clover, they created Viewtiful Joe and Okami, two gorgeous stylized games. They should be fully aware of how to make a more artistic-looking game function. If you're using soft muted colors and don't have any hard outlines, things are going to blend together, and the fast-paced action is going to make things even blurrier.

[@TheBackwardsLegsMan]

I think it's combination of art usually being done later in development so they didn't get as much time to get a feel for it, and usually you can fix visual clarity on any art style with good UX design. Painterly is just such a strong effect that is almost completely antithetical to fast paced design. Obvious in hindsight, but generally speaking you just need extra TLC with the interface and characters to make things clear within the art style.

[@davidbaguetta127]

Game was made by people not the logo or the company name

[@xraxisxtremestream1511]

Agreed. Okami on the PS2 looks better than this.

[@jamessunderlandseventh7410]

@@alastor8091 I wish! God Hand was a Clover Studios masterpiece.

[@MrMrboy09]

Are you stupid!!? That would cost millions and we’d have to give them years to develop content!! Just go grab some of those extra FF14 assets, roll with that and make me a BILLION DOLL HAIRS! Christ! This guy over here trying make art, IM HERE TO MAKE MONEY!!

[@KadeemG61]

It’s time for an update on Death Of A Game: Babylon’s Fall. Spoiler Alert, it’s dead. Servers are shutting down in February 2023, less than a year after launch. Babylon’s Fall is the Google Nexus Q of failed live service games.

[@PhriekshoTV]

Considering Square Enix's love of Live Service and their statements on the future of games, I'd like to believe that they're partially to blame for this atrocity

[@humrH2360]

Square Enix has gained a reputation as the EA of Japan for a reason. Their executive meddling gets VERY noticeable, with Avengers probably being the most egregious (though it doesn't help that the game suffers a debilitating lack of direction in general).

[@kyotheman69]

Square can lose more money serves them right

[@1eye1tear95]

I bet this was completely squares fault smh what was once a great company now just money hungry business men

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

@@kyotheman69 Only because dumdums kept the company alive buying and supporting that dumpster fire of a game ff14 remake. Then they got tons of sale because everyone was stuck at home during covid. It's basically free money because there is like no competition in the mmo world for a modern style mmo that isn't totally exploitative. That is how bad the market is.

[@bloody4558]

@@humrH2360 I wonder who the fuck chose their current CEO, because that guy is the one destroying the company. As soon as he landed on his seat everything started going wrong

[@neliaironwood7573]

The game was advertised as having the ability to pull the enemy's weapon away with that grappling hook. That was even showcased on the State of Play 2019 trailer when actually it was a scripted gameplay scene where the player parries Zenon and steals his sword. That scene also appeared in the E3 2018 cinematic trailer and was likely supposed to be the unique Platinum quirk. However, you can't even do that because its actually scripted.

[@smokesphere]

As of today they announced the games service will be shutdown in February. It won't even make it to its first birthday. What a joke

[@JeromeSankara]

Working at Gamestop, this game was not advertised in the slightest. We got copies a couple days before launch and I had absolutely no idea what it was. We actually forgot to put it on our shelves for a few days, it mattered that little. Still haven't sold a single copy.

[@JeromeSankara]

Update: we never sold a copy and we had to humanely euthanize them rip

[@SliminBlue]

Welp, it happened. As of Tuesday September 13th 2022, Babylon's Fall has been confirmed to be completely shut down on February 27th 2023, less than a full year after release. Yes, this is a complete shut down and nobody will be able to ever play it again after the 27th. The game is being or already has been removed from the PS Store digitally and other retailers are taking physicals off of online stores, along with the inability to purchase premium currency from here on out. I guarantee you at least 3 people will be genuinely upset about this.

[@FatalPhenom]

3? You really think that many people will be upset? I'd say you're being generous with that estimate 🤣

[@bhirawamaylana466]

Is it that hard just to make normal free MMORPG with shady gacha in it than make live service game ?

[@chatspam1238]

In hindsight, Having both babylon and Fall in their name is definitely raising some red flags for themselves.

[@vetreas366]

"Babylon's Fall: Two Days To Retirement, My Fiancee Is Waiting For Me To Return To Her And Get Married And I Still Haven't Told Her How Much I Love Her, We're Gonna Make It Through This, Guys What's The Worst That Could Happen? I Have A Letter For My Dying Mother In My Pocket That I Have To Deliver, No Way I Die Here!" edition on sale next month.

[@aceofhearts573]

It is crazy how Square Enix has failed three times in a row making a live service game. Marvels Avengers, Babylons Fall and FF7 First Soldier have all failed big time. If SE bad made them traditional single players games they would sold millions. Babylons Fall looked so good to me. I loved the character designs and armor.... what a shame. All the talent of Platinum wasted on this and they said they will keep trying to make a live service game....

[@majormetcalf1225]

I always love when creators apologize for a sick voice. I expect to hear a monster from the deep but they end up sounding exactly the same.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I can tell you at the very least, it doesn't feel the same.

[@razagan1343]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Hope you get well soon

[@theStamax]

That's mostly because we perceive heavy changes in our own voice when sick due to blockage in certain areas of our respiratory system. This leads to significant changes in how our own voice feels. I say "feels" instead of "sounds like" because as humans we perceive our own voice only partially through hearing. It's much more a combination of hearing, feeling how you form words and feeling the vibrations through your upper body. Hence you think your voice sounds different, because to you it feels very differently, while others may only notice minor differences (fairly often voices sound slightly deeper for example).

[@lt1459]

"Babylon’s Fall removed from sale after only six months, shutting down February 2023" - Those handful of players are going to be sad.

[@ThatFeelBr0]

"Why did Platinum choose that date?" That smells of publisher decision more than a dev's one. Square Enix has been self sabotaging for quite a while. "Why they still are doing this game?" Probably contractual obligations.

[@omegaslayer]

Although Yuji Naka was probably at fault, Bland Boringworld is definitely another example of this. Releasing it along Monster Hunter: Rise and It Takes Two on the same weekend was just suicide.

[@ddjsoyenby]

what i thought too.

[@ThatFeelBr0]

@@omegaslayer EA also did this to themselves by launching Titan Fall a week after BF1. It's almost they wanted these games to fail/disapear from the public view. *wink* *wink*

[@GoodlyPenguin]

@@ThatFeelBr0 The problem with Titanfall 1 and 2's launch dates are the fault of the higher ups at *Respawn* and not EA according to the leaks and reports, but EA was the easy target since they do push games out either way too early or conflicting with other AAA games.

[@kazumablackwing4270]

@@ThatFeelBr0 the irony there is that, while it was still playable, Titanfall was vastly superior to Battlefield 1. Then Titanfall 2 doubled down on that by not only having great multiplayer, but also being the first AAA fps in years to have a single player campaign that was actually good

[@DerAnanasbaum]

It wasn't just Elden Ring that launched very around that timeframe. GaaS titles always also have to compete with MMORPGs and CORPGs, and there were *lots* of industry juggernauts having major launches: Lost Ark, GW2, SWTOR, and even Destiny2 - an immensely close competitor. At least some of those in charge must have known what would happen, further reinforcing the idea this game was seen as expendable from the very start...

[@Master10k2]

Thanks to all those launches (Elden Ring, Lost Ark & GW2: EoD in particular) I never even knew Babylon's Fall even existed until now.

[@yuesu2325]

Pretty much this. Competition in single player games are more relaxed as even if your game is "not as good" as the best game released in the same frame, as long as it's not terrible it still sell later when people have time to play, and even more later when it's on sale. GAAS model compete directly with MMO,multiplayer focused, or esport type games, so if your game is "slightly worse" than the competition it's dead on arrival with no way to come back, since the other games won't ever be "finished" that people have time to check out your game.

[@joeypeawood4656]

I like how the illness adds an element of “I’m done with these shitty games” to the whole video. Hope you feel better soon man

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

lol'd

[@justacatinabox7108]

It's all good, even with a slightly raspy voice your investigations are top tier

[@JPOG7TV]

We always praise Japanese devs for sticking to traditional game design but games like these prove that they can be out of touch just like the Western devs. Platinum games did what BioWare did and what Creative Assembly are currently doing. Making games that they really shouldn’t be making. I can only think of Jedi Fallen order proving that studios can make any games they want despite their previous experience and projects.

[@Three60Mafia]

Explain. What is Creative Assembly making now that they shouldn't be? They been killing it with Total War series.

[@samvimes9510]

Also Raven Software back in the day. They made a ton of shooters (Hexen, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Quake 4, Singularity, etc) but they also made Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, as well as the X-Men Legends games and the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Raven was an incredibly talented studio, and Phil Spencer's comments about wanting to revive Hexen makes me think he'll release them from the Call of Duty mines. I got to talk to Mike Gummelt in the comment section of Civvie 11's review of Singularity, and according to him about half of the old Raven team is still around, so I'm pretty hopeful.

[@Mm-vr9mt]

@@samvimes9510 That's some fantastic news thank you!

[@planescaped]

@@Three60Mafia The modern total war games all kinda suck... The don't feel good to play anymore.

[@TheBackwardsLegsMan]

Studios know making good, single player games is profitable. They just don't make as much money as these 'live service' games, so studio execs just can't stop themselves from trying to enter this absurdly saturated market. AA is the goldilocks zone, since they still have good resources but aren't beholden to shareholders trying to force them to milk their playerbase.

[@theangelbelow88]

Never even heard of this game and as soon as you said it released on the same day as Elden Ring it all made sense 😅

[@Juice8767]

Only 1 month later and this game is getting tossed out You guys nailed it

[@gotenks5633]

I think i must be REALLY out of touch or more proof that my gaming time is far diminished...I've never even heard of this game and yet it came out and "died" THIS year!?

[@casual1118]

I mean your not missing much from any live service game, or "games as a service" anyway. It's just a platform to burn money with.

[@BlueTurn]

Yep I thought it came out last year. I was shocked when he said it came out in March considering how much it was trashed even when it was first revealed

[@gotenks5633]

@@casual1118 yup thats totally fair, tbh after watching this, i couldnt even tell you what the games about. It looks like a cross between godfall and a very bad version of dark souls?

[@gotenks5633]

@@BlueTurn guess it goes to show, theres so much trash in the market that even something from such a huge studio can pass unnoticed if its this bad.

[@Zingler2010]

I don't think I even saw this game advertised anywhere. This is the first I'm hearing about it. Probably not a good sign. Hope you're feeling better! Your videos are always so interesting to watch.

[@MrThecrazyzombie]

Aaaand they killed it

[@castform57]

This game had probably the clearest declaration of death ever. There were still like 10 total players, but when the days passed on, it sometimes hit that round 0 players. At that point you can safely say that the GaaS game is dead.

[@Chessrook44]

I'd love to see you try and cover Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, an MMO from years ago that died not once, but TWICE. And despite that double death, is actually STILL alive with the blessing of the original developers, despite the official servers being dead and gone. It's fascinating.

[@kraosdadafusfus8034]

The community is even making new Ages (worlds created through magical books by an ancient civilization called the D'ni) to explore.

[@PanmasterAtArms]

@@samgoff5289 You had so many ways you could of said that, and you chose to be a douche about it. Besides, a bunch of the dead games he covers are obscure or niche mmos.

[@podcast_title]

It did a morb?

[@Chessrook44]

@@samgoff5289 You may say that, but it's still one of the more unique situations, and one of the more unique focuses of an MMORPG that there is out there. That might be part of the reason it shut down, but still.

[@Chessrook44]

@@samgoff5289 The game dying, then coming back, then dying again, THEN having the fan-server, which is given support BY the original developers? Maybe a bit more unique.

[@gigginoxplayer]

Yknow if I had a nickel for every game that was live service and had “fall” in the title wherein it then fell to pieces within a short time frame, AND was featured on this channel, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice

[@flamesoul3778]

I guess you can say that Babylon's Fall...fell off. Ok I'll take my leave now

[@aredlinesoldierfromtheyear231]

This game might go down in history as one of the shortest lived video games ever

[@noahkirkland5844]

I feel bad for any game that launched within 3 weeks of Elden Ring, which not only sold a ton of copies but was also one of the top 10 highest rated games OF ALL TIME pretty much as soon as reviews came out.

[@aaronbasham6554]

Also heard it might actually be in the top 10 best selling single player games already

[@toledochristianmatthew9919]

@@aaronbasham6554 I have a feeling it will reach more than 20 million by the end of the year.

[@nahuelkid]

Just recently started it ( about 30 hrs in) and... yeah I can't think of many titles that can trade blows with this behemoth of a game

[@The-Opium-Den]

Yep, I don't own or play Elden Ring and I can tell based on the hype and general player sentiment that Elden Ring has slaughtered the competition like pigs. Just crawling out of the shadow of Elden Ring alone is an uphill fight worthy of any souls-like game.

[@gustavosimoes1995]

I Like to imagine that the team behind Baylon's fail made this thing as bad and uninteresting as it is just to dunk on Platinum and Square's CEO's "Live Service" wet dreams

[@georgemeyers7172]

If so. Why would they do that? To encourage them to go back to what they prefer to do? That is make single player games? To be fair they seem to do a lot better when focusing on single player games than on... well Live Service stuff. so maybe that's for the best.

[@jespelibyr]

@@georgemeyers7172 Exactly that. They would try to make the executives end this bullshit.

[@fortis992]

Next I hope they implement NFT into Babylon Fall to end it all on a bang

[@gonhunter3994]

Only squenix's CEO not Platinum's

[@Larry]

Wow, is your quickest "Death" to date? You should totally consider doing a "top 5 fastest..." of the ones you've covered so far!

[@StonerWaifu]

Hello you!

[@williek08472]

But… HELLO YOU!

[@themax6218]

I remember watching gameplay trailers for Godfall and thought, “Yeah, this game looks okay for an action game, but Babylon’s fall is definitely going to be way better.” And then the 2021 e3 trailer and information for Babylon’s fall came out and my hype for the game went to 0 and went down even further when it released

[@FaustNoa]

Babylon ended up being a super expensive demo for just one of the game modes Godfall had, ironically

[@ObsidianRex23]

exactly. this and Godfall were in the top 10 of next Gen games to buy, and as soon as the words "live service" came out, they were immediately booted

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

It looked like it was going to be an epic rpg with amazing lore, then it ends up being this absolute dumpster fire of a mmorpg attempt that looks like for the PS2 15+ years ago. What an abomination. The premise could have really been something.

[@jamesgoines4635]

How can you do a death of a game on a game that was never alive in the first place?

[@bootmanbill2362]

stillborn of a game

[@AbyssalPlague]

It's amazing. This game is the one time the "5 people playing it" joke _actually_ applies.

[@amatsu-mikaboshi]

I did end up playing this game and I tried to stream it on twitch me and a bunch of my friends got bored within 45 minutes of playing we ended up playing Fall guys

[@xadek821]

The problem for me is that we got informed that the game was live service, almost 3 years after reveal. It would have been alarming since Scalebound was also going to be a multiplayer game that was canceled, because as Hideki Kamiya said "they did not have the experience at that time to make a game like that". Also please dont forget the preorder incident on steam, where Square Enix launched the preorders at 60€ and sometime after decided to raise it to 70€. Fuck you for that SE.

[@danielvivas121212]

0:57 A little correction here I'd say Anarchy Reigns (ort Max Anarchy, depending on the region) was their first their first true attempt at an online multiplayer game.

[@Racoonboy14]

I can see the note on oil painting artstyle games. Valkyria chronicles 1 and 4 had that same art style but it works well because its a turn based strategy so theres not alot of moving objects

[@Kavi-xz4yn]

and the irony is it has officially announced it's pulling the plug and pulled it from all stores yesterday. It won't even be online for a full year.

[@ChivalrousSnake]

Babylon's Fall hurt me so much as a Platinum fan. Fell in love with them with Vanquish, then Max Anarchy, then everyone's current favorite meme king supreme MGR Revengeance. I keep eyes on basically everything they make, this game dying so hard makes me almost weep because goddamn man, they straight up abandoned everything that made their games fucking EXCELLENT with this one.

[@crystalwings4520]

Standing here I realized how poorly performed Babylon's Fall until this far. Even no one could even remember its name, unlike MGRR.

[@crystalwings4520]

@@woaddragon Why, because one bad game makes everything bad as well?

[@vetreas366]

@@woaddragon Pretty sure they didn't make Korea, though, either the North or the South. Korra on other hand... Sorry, it was just hanging there like the low fruit it was, someone had to grab it.

[@Justin-Thyme]

@@vetreas366 Don't know what you mean, man. I distinctly remember Hideki Kamiya raising the Korean peninsula from the depths of the oceans

[@Largentina.]

This is not the first time Platinum has made a bad game.

[@toohardanouar]

Platinum games just announced that they will shut down the game next February

[@ADunleavy]

While Babylon Falls releasing the same time as Elden Ring is a joke, props to Horizon: Forbidden West for also releasing within a week of Elden Ring, that takes balls to do. It also wasn't insanely painful for them because they were hugely successful. Not as much as they could have been had they released a month later, but still it was on a whole, a successful launch.

[@Erin1313]

Poor Horizon. I adore those games, but the first one was released within Breath of the Wild and as you said Forbidden West was a week from Elden Ring. They don't have good luck picking dates 😅

[@maximillianlylat1589]

Kirby also surprisingly survived elden ring's release time. But that was probably because its a well known franchise with it own set of fans

[@techno_otaku]

I don't know why, but "getting Eldin Ring'd" just makes me chuckle

[@MikhailKutzow]

You know, the funny thing is, I didn't even know Platinum Games worked on this. I might have cared more if I had. But as it stands it felt like "just another live service game" from Square Enix, who has been going down that road a lot lately.

[@-BarathKumarS]

For those curious,there are currently 2 players playing this game in the entire world....2 fking players bruh! All time peak player count for the past couple weeks were at best around 20 players too,what a fking joke made by Square Enix.

[@ken7007]

People thinking steam charts is the whole world is hilarious But the game is dead either way

[@zero64734]

The servers are going down

[@pockystyx4087]

Man; I really feel for Platinum here. They have tried to work on a bunch of multiplayer focused games in the past, and all of them ended up being failures. Its going to be really hard for anyone to want to invest in their future projects like this, since even the money pits at SE are being milked for NFTs and other such nonsense.

[@slite2k59]

I don’t feel bad they did it to themselves

[@ValentinoMarino11]

Don’t feel bad for corporations. They did this to themselves.

[@Serevarno]

I didn’t even know about the game until literally two days before it came out when I got an email from squeenix. I never saw an ad anywhere. Not on KZbin, Twitter, or anywhere else. I don’t think squeenix put more than a few bucks into the marketing.

[@srnigromante9214]

"A nier automata that never ends" hilarious because what people loved the most about Nier Autimata was the multiple endings.

[@gogovodka5369]

I remember seeing this come out and fall right on its face, im so glad you made a video on it. Love your content!!!

[@tizodd6]

Greed is killing so many games. Stop it with the “games as a service” crap and just focus on making good game. They’re more focused on milking costumers than making a good product.

[@Kinoksis]

Platinum Games insists that they'll keep going forward with the road map of content, but with a player count that doesn't even pass the double digits it's obvious they'll cut their losses and sweep BF under the rug.

[@itsagundamd4132]

Just came back to let you know that Square Enix is shutting down the servers in late February of 2023

[@Folutu]

The ending of this video sure hits different after recent events.

[@rezonance4937]

as a big platinum fan and coming off of astral chains, i was so excited to see that teaser for babylons fall 4 years ago and with square publishing the budget was gonna be huge. and then the 2nd trailer dropped and then the game came out disappointed is putting it lightly for me

[@johnoneil9188]

Man, this one stings. Platinum is one of my favourite studios together with Obsidian and InXile when it comes to relatively smaller studios. Their games are always awesome but unfortunately have the habit of selling rather poorly. Still they are pretty much always of really great quality with the lowest rated one until this one being the Legend of Korra tie-in game. With this you can tell right away that their heart was not fully in it. Still really looking forward to Bayo 3 though.

[@Riposte8]

This game is considerably better than their truly crap Ninja Turtles game and the extremely mediocre Korra one. I would put it at the level of their Transformers game, which is probably the main reason it got made. The downside is the pricing and online focus.

[@ZombiAstral]

It is quite typical of a fanboy to have selective memory. No their games aren't always awesome. P* games is a VERY hit & miss studio. And their few good games don't sell well. Bayonetta is essentially DOA as a Nintendo exclusive, for obvious reasons. Ironically the most successful entry is the PS360 release. A lot of the big wigs have also left, to form their own studios.

[@johnoneil9188]

@@Riposte8 Oh wow, I completely forgot that Transformers game existed. What I saw of that looked pretty cool but true, nowhere near the good examples of their games. They really don´t appear to be good on comission.

[@Mikesulli90]

Our boy's back! I've been waiting for another one of these!

[@KadeemG61]

Today’s the day that Babylon’s Fall died, February 27, 2023.

[@TheJP100]

Well, the mechanic of having 4 weapons on your back that work like some sort of damage cd, screams to me: we had an idea for a new mechanic but kept ramming the "immersion"-buzzword down an action focused brawler-game. Just from watching the trailer it is kind of obvious to me that the team behind this had either no clear design in mind when starting development or had severe issues in the chain of command.

[@N7niko]

Another game I knew would be on this channel eventually. From the moment platinum said “hey we are open to being bought” when no one was asking.

[@agxryt]

Everytime I watch one of these videos, I think back to ESO and Fallout 76, and how good they both eventually became, and wonder if any of these will reach that point

[@MightSiiigh]

BF announced they ending the live service in February so the game won't be playable anymore so to answer your question? No it won't

[@CarlolucaS]

The whole 4 weapons on the back reminds me of "Tower of God" comic. They have these floating armor recks that they can summon and pull out weapons from. I always liked that design. Here it looks very odd. Funny that "Tower of God" is also a tower that you have to climb to get stronger.

[@SkaerKrow]

They never should have abandoned the oil-paint visual style. Instead, they should have explored ways of making it more legible for the player. When they rolled it back they turned the game from something flawed but with undeniable artistic flair to a mid-generation PS3 title.

[@Darkprosper]

I agree that the art style was the one thing making the game distinct, and in my opinion it was gorgeous. But pairing it with a fast-paced, skill-based action game ? Terrible idea. I hope other games release with this art style and a more appropriate gameplay style.

[@qlum]

@@Darkprosper I don't think oil painting style has to be a problem for faster games. Mainly applying it to the environment, using outlines, keeping the visual effects simplistic. Just the implementation was bad here.

[@purgatoriprytania5382]

Live service games are cancer, and are rarely a hit with the public. When will greedy-ass publishers learn their lesson?

[@artsoldier]

Every time you show Babylon's Fall footage it makes me anxious to always want to check if my youtube video quality has decreased to 240p 😅

[@drew99993]

Ouch. Hope you are feeling better

[@silvercat18]

Greed without a game to hide behind.

[@khandimahn9687]

If the game was free to play, then a lot more people would have tried it. But if people are going to pay just to launch a game, then people expect a certain amount of quality and content.

[@shadowdragon236]

Now this game is given out for free and also getting destroyed after the online services are getting cancelled

[@movict]

And on 13th September 2022 they announced end of service to come 28/2/2023, so yeah.

[@lazyraquan9856]

This game feels like it came out last week and it's already dead this has to be one of the worst gaming failures of all time

[@franzhopper7631]

I checked the steam charts last night and there were maybe 10 to 13 people playing yesterday.

[@lazyraquan9856]

@@franzhopper7631 that's sad

[@planescaped]

It's the same thing that happened to Evolve, only faster and harder. Babylon's Fall was such a colossal failure, even it's failure is being quickly forgotten.

[@kazumablackwing4270]

@@planescaped the difference is Evolve was actually pretty good, it just ran into the same problem Ark: Survival of the Fittest did: its genre was still fairly niche when it released, and it wouldn't last long enough to see said genre blow up

[@gingerbill128]

@@kazumablackwing4270 nonsense , the genre was massive and it sold well , it lost all its customers from rip off DLC's and being incredibly boring. It's problem was holding on to customers not getting them. L4D was massive and sold countless millions. Your take on this is just so wrong . A Niche genre waiting to get big , lol , just nonsense. You can debate whether the game is good but not the made up story about a niche genre waiting to get big . Such utter bollocks being talked.

[@simrock_]

I remember considering if I wanted to purchase the game at the time. But at 70 EUR box price, graphics that did not stand up for a AAA publisher title in 22 (you'll find a lot of "graphics like from PS3" references out there), with microtransactions it's already a hard sell. Watching gameplay of the title the world seemed very empty and tedious, topped with a town/hub that seemed to mainly consist of cash shop vendors. Add to that the public relations stuff around Square Enix at the time ... hard pass.

[@Maldito011316]

Those "graphics like from PS3" ppl don't know what PS3 graphics are like. Compare it to NieR (the original) for example, or even Bayonetta 1 or Vanquish. Those games are crusty, jaggy, and there's little ambient decoration.

[@endersblade]

The blurry oil painting looks in the early game gave me a headache. My eyes were constantly trying to get things to focus. It was extremely distracting.

[@ferchubenitez1995]

Honestly, this feels like one of those games that EE wanted Platinum Games to make just to fully monetize the hell out of it. Like a cashgrab, and one that did so pretty poorly. It's like a take 2 at Marvel's Avengers. Maybe this time EE wil get the memo that you don't put the cart before the horse. Make the game fun to play, visually attractive and offer proper replay value. All things Babylon's Fall lacked, and Marvel's Avenger only did slightly better because of better visuals, but still fell into the same problems for everything else.

[@AliceMargatroid7]

And now the servers have an official shutdown date. What an unmitigated disaster.

[@Jiiinxyyy]

“Sorry for having Covid” this reminds me of that episode of Friends where Phoebe gets sick so her voice gets deeper and then she sings way better.

[@roonkolos]

As of earlier today, the game has been announced to be coming to an end by Feb 23, 2023 I'm surprised it lasted this long to begin with

[@thisguyerik_]

so i've recently made it my goal to finish Babylon's Fall before the game shuts down on the 27th. i played both the 2nd and 3rd beta, but didn't buy the game until a month ago since it seemed so far off from what i thought it would be. now that it has been pretty much abandoned, with no more content releasing, no more in-app purchases and no more false promises, the game actually is... kinda fun? i'd even go as far as to say that it's a 7/10 experience (while that isn't much, it's definitely more than what it got from reviewers). it actually kind of saddens me that this game will soon be gone forever, since the potential was always there, just not used. rewatching the e3 2019 trailer makes me realize the game platinum actually wanted was something completely else, and my guess is that square enix was the biggest reason for the sudden change in the game's development. i know this wasn't known back when this video was made, but we all know now that square is not in the best of positions and hasn't been for a little bit of time now. i feel like square had quite an impact on the game's possible change of development, considering everything they want to publish at the moment is supposed to make them a good few bucks by stamping projects off as GAAS or NFTs. i really wish this game would've gotten a second chance, but i guess that's too late now. things like this really make me wonder if square enix still has a spot in the modern game industry, considering their only IP that actually does well is Final Fantasy.

[@magiwastaken]

Great video! Hope you recovered well from Covid. Honestly, with the monetization in-game, I feel like this could have worked out well as a F2P title. Not sure if switching to that, though, could save the game's dying population...

[@12isaac00]

I can't help but think they just went "let's do that floaty sword thinghy from Automata but more!" and proceeded to do a worse looking version of it.

[@kevinreyes8743]

I didnt ever know this game existed till like 5 minuts ago

[@LeoKRogue]

The thing that annoyed me the most about this game is that a lot of it was actually really fun and unique. I played it pretty much until the servers shut down, and I'm irritated that I'll never get to go through the story levels again. A lot of it was generic, but Galenos was a sick fight with an amazing soundtrack that I still go back and rewatch today.

[@iamergoproxy3476]

this video helped me realized how BAD this game actually was. since it's gonna die anyway they may as well add it to PS+

[@michealtheevilhero2340]

Fun fact: Elden Ring is now on the top 10 most sold games in U.S history

[@tomspoli]

in like only US sales?

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

The problem with the artstyle seems to be that it's mostly just post processing, it's basically just a fancy filter, so it just blurs everything. If you want to go for a readable but strong art style you can't just rely on that. Sifu has a very distinct art style where almost every stil frame looks like something hand painted and it's still super readable. Also wow this is blurry, I thought the vid was just low res but then godfall came on with a super crisp image compared to the vaseline vision of Babylon.

[@vertex546]

I legit have never even heard of Babylon's Fall or knew Platinum Games was even making an MMO...and I love Platinum games. So strange.

[@SliminBlue]

Well that sure was a game. I think the really telling thing is that this is the fourth shortest DOAG in the past 3 years, the only episodes shorter than this are Harry Potter Wizards Unite, Bleeding Edge, and Auto Assault. It shows just how new this game is and how quickly it died, with the day it died probably being the day it was fully revealed. It's a shame how Platinum hasn't really had a breakout hit with one of their own IPs, they can definitely make great games as they've shown with the Bayonetta games and Nier Automata (and Metal Gear Rising, of course), but those are their biggest successes and they don't own either of them and every time they've tried a self-made IP in recent years it just hasn't been popular at all. Wonderful 101 is the closest they've gotten and while that is fairly popular, it's still not anywhere near the popularity of Bayonetta or Nier. I think they can still get that one big breakout hit on their own, it seems like they kinda need to if Bayonetta 3 is the end of the trilogy for the time being, since they can make great games, they just need a good property to fit with their style. Hoping you get better soon also! I was gonna be gone on a trip for the next week-ish but I got covid from another trip a week or two ago, being sick really sucks. I hope it hasn't hit you too hard!

[@TheDeconstructivist]

So, I was intrigued by BF prior to its release. Combat *looked* flashy enough, Platinum has obviously done some good work in the past, and the idea of a "looter/slasher" was really appealing to me. I don't really mind the "always on" or even "games as a service," as long as I don't *have* to play MP and get a decent amount of content at launch. When the reviews and word of mouth were SOOOOO terrible, I figured I would dodge it completely. Then they released the demo and I thought "I'll give you a chance, Platinum!" I played the demo for something like 4 to 6 hours and I have never been so turned off of a game based on a demo in my life. The game did look like a muddy PS3 game, which gave a pretty bad impression. It's not just that it was so ugly, it's more like it gives the impression the developers just didn't care. And text was similarly colored to backgrounds, making it difficult to read (on my 55" TV, no less). There were a lot of other clunky things going on too, not the least of which was the story, and they all exuded that same lack of care. But nothing could prepare me for the one thing I thought there was no way it could fail at: the combat. I do not understand why ANYONE would defend the combat of this game. Wielding multiple weapons at the same time just felt so clunky, overwhelming, and incoherent. The bows in particular felt truly awful. The lock-on system felt janky and awkward. But worst of all, I felt as weak as a kitten. I never felt powerful. Enemies could take everything I could dish out and not even flinch. How did we go from Bayonetta to this? I will put up with a lot of crap if you give a me solid combat system, but there was nothing graceful or elegant in BF's combat. The original God of War, DMC/Beyonetta, and Space Marine are all examples of simple, compelling combat systems. How these supposed masters could wind up with a combat system even more of a mess than Godfall will have me scratching my head for the rest of my days.

[@Quibber123]

Not exactly sure how the demo places you in Babylon's Fall, but the combat progression is tied to the story in the main game in the most baffling way. There's some major upgrades to your moves that occur every story tier to the point that you basically have twice as many moves by the end of the game alongside a plethora of upgrade mechanics. If you make use of that you can start one/two shotting non-boss enemies and dashing around the field at high speeds- unfortunately the end game is still the same arenas it always was with the same 5 or so bosses you already fought? There is NOTHING there. There was pretty much no one to queue with, so I had to learn to abuse mechanics pretty hard to beat the later levels without spending hours grinding power level. The thing that really killed me was by the end of the game you unlock 2 additional combo selections for your weapons when you equip them. Technical and Powerful. The default you start with was standard. Like, now you have 4 different weapon slots, each of which can be one of 6 different weapon types, and each of THOSE can be one of three different combo forms. Like, what the fuck kind of overwhelming nonsense is this?

[@TheDeconstructivist]

@@Quibber123 Fwiw, the demo starts you right at the start of the game. I immediately felt like a limp noodle.

[@LockedOnTargetShow]

I think another factor is that players saw how Godfall faired, which I know, doesn't make much sense, but they are comparative products as you mentioned. Scared consumers not wanting to invest due to the lack of security is nebulous, but is still a thing. I think this got a "guilt by association" effect.

[@Yarharsuperpirate]

Fun fact. There was a time where the steam player count for this game literally dropped to 1. Yes. Just 1 player

[@iamergoproxy3476]

game hasn't even been out for a year and it's slated to die in 2023, despite the promised efforts to support it. This is maybe worse than Anthem

[@dragonbornexpress5650]

No, it's 100% worse than Anthem; Anthem lasted two years before the plug was pulled.

[@300IQPrower]

aaaaaaand it’s dead! 2/28/23 confirmed as date of shutdown.

[@Fiery891]

I feel the FF14 assets were approved but not properly communicated to the players, as they had a Nier Automata crossover 2019-2021. FF14 got several Yorha inspired weapons and armor along with 2B cosplay and platinum didn't get much out of it, so maybe they were allowed to use some items from that game in their next then forgot to tell anyone that was happening.

[@Slop_Dogg]

This one never really had a chance at all. Hope you’re feeling better now

[@luancampos8744]

It was dead on arrival

[@amatsu-mikaboshi]

Oh yeah babylon's fall was destined to fall right when they announced it

[@zukrath1247]

I feel like Plat was trying to redeem themselves for their last big attempt in a multi-player game, Scalebound, and it blew up in their faces

[@toledochristianmatthew9919]

Also their failed mobile games. Platinum has been trying to break into live service for a long time and most of their projects failed.

[@soulechelon2643]

First off, glad you're feeling better. Covid sucks. As for Babylon's Fall, I was actually one of the few that was interested in it. INITIALLY looked like a fun dungeon "crawling" beat-em-up not unlike Vindictus, which was one of my favorite games. Was keeping an ear open for news on it and yet even I was surprised when I found out it was released...and then instantly dismayed because I learned of its debut by hearing of its glaring flaws. Yeah not sure what Platinum and Squeenix were thinking here.

[@jakedoe4987]

I love the detective Conan music at the end. Great video too!