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.
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• BABYLON'S FALL All Cut...
• Babylon's Fall Review
• Video
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[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@justacatinabox7108]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@flamesoul3778]

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

[@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.

[@techno_otaku]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@zero64734]

The servers are going down

[@itsagundamd4132]

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

[@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.

[@movict]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@ashiik]

I actually said “holy shit” when nerd slayer said it came out vs elden ring, like what were they thinking??.

[@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.

[@TheNzFox]

regarding why Babylon's fall launched the same day as elden ring, I honestly think it was by design, everything about the artwork used on the store page to me suggests they were trying to fool some people into thinking it was elden ring at a quick glance in the hope of getting a few extra sales. This could be just a result of 'fantasy box art trope' and I got no idea if it would actually work or not, but I know I thought I was seeing double for a few moments when one game showed up after the other on the steam 'whats new' pop up.

[@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+

[@Slop_Dogg]

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

[@detectivephelps9805]

At this point, they would have to 1. Ask all current purchasers register their accounts 2. Issue a rebate for a portion of the cost, let's say $20 Steam/PSN/XBL + Free in-game items. (Of course they wouldn't do the rebate, even though the good will it would buy would also get tons of press for Point 3) 3. Go Free-to-Play accompanied by a larger content update with more content, classes/weapons, and an endgame challenge/progression mode. I don't think people are opposed to COOP Multiplayer Titles, people are just opposed to spending $60 and getting all their friends to buy it as well, just for them to play for 15-20 hours.

[@luancampos8744]

It was dead on arrival

[@amatsu-mikaboshi]

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

[@bloodrunsclear]

At least someone remembers this game. NO ONE remembers 'Left Alive'

[@ranecrade2812]

RIP Scalebound, still hurts to this day.

[@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.

[@RoyaLotad]

Maybe it's because of the genres of games I tend to gravitate to, but someone who is a big fan of Platinum Games' work and loves the Bayonetta series, I never knew this game even existed.

[@theblackbaron4119]

The game is basically driving up infant mortality statistics up by itself, if you think about how early it died. It was basically DOA.

[@Rayhaku808]

I read that as Dead or Alive(6) initially. Since it also died just after it came out.

[@Skeiths]

Honestly Babylon's Fall is one of the few games that I think would've benefitted heavily from just going full-on anime, the art style of something like Code Vein or Scarlet Nexus would've fit the game so much better than the weird happy medium they went for, it really just doesn't fit with the theme of the game, but of course this is the least of it's problems.

[@snazzydrew]

8:30 Honestly, I'm surprised you waited to long to slip the pun in. Almost had me in the first half, not gonna lie. 😅😂

[@epiclifeross]

i like how i know this game came out this year and I both forgot about it announcement and release and after I heard the player base was small

[@Zaczac111]

I hope one day Fiesta Online can be covered on the DoaG series.

[@mauricioal.]

i thought you made a video on Godfall already but no this one is on Babylon's Fall lmao hope you feel better already

[@renewalacumen1770]

The only hope Babylon's Fall has is "A Realm Reborn" miracle.

[@nafereuskortex9055]

When I saw it I genuinely thought it was a mobile game.

[@Lxx00Jxx00]

Great job you two. The only thing that I’d have mentioned is that basically all of the licensed work that platinum games did were pretty lukewarm, even for Nintendo (Star fox zero)

[@HeromanVII]

Shout out to that guy who plays it on his own. What a strange game...

[@jakedoe4987]

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

[@GeminiTasiri]

NieR: Automata's combat - while absolutely servicable - already felt like "Platinum lite", so when they announced Babylon's Fall and how it would be basing its combat around NieR: Automata's combat, it already felt like an easy "okay gonna wait and see how this goes". Then I heard it was going to be a Live-Service game. Then the artstyle came out muddy*. Like, literally anything that you'd like about a Platinum Games game if you were familiar with them outside of Automata wasn't in the end product here, I wonder how this steered so far off course. *The artdirection is so bad I still have no idea how muddy it actually is because KZbin / Twitch compression makes it look like crap in addition to that anyway.

[@cucabeludo5539]

The soundtrack is blasting the background sound

[@gallow_walker]

I would love to see an episode on Pirates of the Caribbean Online. I'd be curious to see why that game shut down, and the Pirates Online crew definitely deserve a shout-out.

[@dragonbornexpress5650]

14:34. And then Platinum Games announced last year that the game would shut down in February of 2023; For context, just a few minutes from now as I'm writing this comment, it's about to hit January 18th of 2023. OOF!

[@StuartFknLil]

I wish Babylon's Fall would turn into a Morbius meme. Babylon's Fall is the game of all time.

[@joshbailey7775]

Counting down the days tell the 15 part mini series: death of a game - world of Warcraft

[@Vittoo]

Who else have your phone just suddenly blast light at you?

[@JRB179]

This is the worst Babylon Fall since the fall of Babylon

[@KokKeeYap]

And then... we have the controversy surrounding the VA of Bayonetta...

[@d_shuffles]

Babylon Fall is one of the most DOA games I can think of sense that 4 v 1 monster game.

[@Fyre0]

"Live service" designation is a huge red flag for me. I will NEVER play a game that falls under this. We're in the thick of a gaming dark age with these hypertransaction-riddled "games" launching broken, incomplete, content-deprived with fully functional stores. I have a huge backlog and library of games to work through that aren't "live service" bullshit, so I have no problem passing on these new "games" for the next few years---assuming the dark age of gaming comes to an end. If not, no problem, good thing I have permanent, offline games that aren't a "live service" that risk getting the plug pulled at any moment.

[@SomeAustrianGuy_]

Ngl, if you told me a few years back, that THIS came from the hands of the Nier and MGR devs, I would have laughed at you for an hour straight. Man it's really a shame

[@troy612]

I had never even heard of this title before (says it all really) and was thinking it was a tragedy from 2-3 years ago. When you revealed that it was released at the same time as Elden Ring, I was absolutely dumbfounded.

[@bexplosion]

And now it dies for real February 27 2023

[@kingsteve4304]

Hope you're feelin alright man.

[@null_subject]

The phase 2 visuals were so much better than the "update." The clarity argument is a sound one-especially in a fast-paced action game-but it doesn't change the fact that what they were going for was pretty cool, and they did achieve a really unique look that I'd like to see revisited. In fact, I'd probably buy the game right now just to check it out if it weren't for the fact that they trashed the graphics to appease people who didn't even understand what they were doing (a good example of this is angry joe's video in which he is baffled by the water shaders).

[@HibHab69]

Is this the fastest an online game has died ever? It's been like, 5 months, not even.

[@johnwrath3612]

How can something die without ever having been alive?

[@PaladinSalt]

Jeez man. I was thinking of getting this but not now. Same thing happened with godfall too

[@sdgamer1860]

everyone take into mind that Platinum games also made some serious dudes with single player games to, which from what i remember the Legend of Korra game and the TMNT game they created were bad with the TMNT game getting delisted from digital stores if I remember right

[@Iwantedtoleavethis]

Make a video on Poxnora please! Very interesting story!!!

[@Esty568]

The only way Platinum could save this game is a complete overhaul, writing a compelling story and creating some content fun to play. Unfortunatelly it feels like they never gave their full heart into this game. Red flags being the borrowed assets and completely missing story and worldbuilding. 😥

[@skitatic]

If you charge someone for a trial it's not a trial it's your first purchase. GG Geologie

[@stevebob240]

Sucks to see when Platinum makes a dud. It's happened before but Babylon's Fall looked like it had potential at least. Hope Bayo 3 will be good, though I don't have a Switch to enjoy 2 or 3.

[@dutchpotato3557]

I can’t tell you how much joy I get from this live service scam failing horribly, alongside Elden ring sales soaring.

[@romero1337]

Honestly didnt even know about this game till this video. Game released this year and died already and im sure other players are only now seeing it.

[@Abel_Unstable]

Get well soon my dude.

[@Edsabre]

I feel bad for Platinum. The hard reality is that they make amazing action games that only sell decently to poor, all while watching these big live-service games like Fortnite and whatever else make billions of dollars a year. They're a good developer, but they've been in financial trouble since they were first formed and at this point I think they just wanna do what it takes to get out of debt and be able to make the games they want without having to worry about if they lights are gonna get cut off. Problem is, they have little to no experience in making a live-service game so they teamed up with *chuckle* square-enix who do have experience but they're woefully incompetent at it. This game should have been free-to-play, like all live-service games. Attaching a $60 buy-in price was the nail in the coffin, imo. This game is rough but the combat has some good ideas and over time this thing could have become something really fun and interesting, but since they locked all the curious-but-cautious players out with that sticker price, I fear it will just fall into obscurity.

[@bamban_garcia5562]

Uhh Platinum Games are nowhere near debt or have to worry about being cut off after The Chinese Communist Party invested countless of millions into them, heck they got so much funding that they can self publish any project they want now There is a difference between purposefully choosing to rely on other publishers / companies to fund their own projects over not being able to afford to create said projects without external funding

[@xinyyc]

If Bayonetta 3 had an online mode similar to Babylon's Fall, it would be the first time I play a game like Babylon's Fall. How many weapons did you say BF has? 4? 6 with the update? That sounds especially low for a Platinum Game.

[@AgentAshe]

I can tell you as a big MMO fan one thing that caused the failure was no publicity. I recall the name but this video is the first I really heard about it.

[@MEXUS.]

Bruh, for a solid few minutes I confused this game with GODFALL lmao.

[@RoseFromDust]

I mean... you called it

[@lumirairazbyte9697]

Games as a Service suffer the same issues as a MMO. Imagine if you spend 80$ and more in mtx, only to be banished to play a year later. I’m pretty sure those who are affected, may never get another Online-Only game ever again, unless it’s extremely popular enough to be warranted and supported for multiple years like Fortnite, CoD, Warframe, etc.

[@loathbringer]

Any game with the variation of “Fall” in the title seems to fail

[@kyburn6195]

I saw a rumour that Squeenix hired Platinum because they needed something to fill in the financial quarter.

[@MaximumCarter]

This was the first time I was happy to not be selected for the beta. Edit: 13:40 this is when I smashed the like button 😆

[@davideduardogonzalezcaball3364]

Salty about the fact these are the kind of games we get from Platinum Games on Playstation nowadays, while other platforms get Bayoneta 3 or Astral Chain.

[@swapertxking]

Hey do you think you'd ever do a Death of a Game on Super Monday Night Combat?

[@ozi-g-be]

12:03 ok that's bad even for fighting game launch standards

[@dquino01]

Why do you make it sound like this is their 1st online game? While they never did a live service before, Anarchy Reigns was their first jump into multiplayer games. Like the core of that game was the multiplayer.

[@Kagetora-]

Anarchy Reigns is rarely known

[@dquino01]

@@Kagetora- True, but I'd figure someone like them would bring it up. Especially as this is an educational video.

[@Mersak168]

TBH with you, i didn't knew it was already out. But, it was deemed to fail, nobody wanted it.

[@TalDSruler]

I do hope it days. Then I can buy it at a fair price because the ost is still fire.

[@twennysebben]

Watching this after learning of the game for the very first time upon hearing the news it's being killed off for good.

[@dogdiddler5984]

respond to this comment nerdslayer

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

i must

[@shamusfarmer]

It just looks like such a sloppy, messy, confusing blur of particle effects or whatever those are. Like how everyone went crazy with bloom lighting in the 2010's, they turned all the sliders up to the max just for the sake of it

[@ParisPK]

And now the game’s servers will be shutdown next year in February

[@michealtheevilhero2340]

I've seen this trend way too many times,Let's jusy hope Platinum go back to the singleplayer game path because that's where they shine

[@self1sch]

Something is wrong with your guys' HDR settings. On my HDR macbook the red in website articles is always looking weird, like @06:31 the "PUTS ON GLASSES" and "Sherif Saed" are super bright red and look like they have multiple outlines. Same @09:00, the scores and especially the Pinterest logo look weird. I noticed that in the last video as well, dunno whats going on....

[@BluGuyEX]

While I would definitely say the PC version is dead, it seems that the playstation portion of the player base is small but seem to be hoping platinum can pull this game out of the mud

[@PandoryMagazine]

I read the reviews for this about a week ago and still bought it. Watched your video and decided to give it a try. Roughly 3 - 4 hours in and I don't like the art style for the cutscenes, they make it looks like a PS3 game. However when you actually get into the game itself it really isn't that bad. The lobby I joined I thought would be empty actually had quite a few people in it. The gameplay does seem different to your average hack and slash game. I played a few games and solo and wasnt in a party with anyone but still enjoyed the experience. I then threw up a mission and waited for someone to join, in about a minute someone hopped in and the game did feel a lot more fun. Hopefully this will be a case of more like No Man's Sky than Anthem and we will see it get some tweaks and updates. We are seeing too many companies releasing games and just giving up on them a short time later. Going to give it another 10-20 hours minimum to see if it changes formula.

[@OldEmixX]

I didn't even know this game existed

[@slayer2450]

I have never even heard of this game

[@timsaban6764]

holy shit Babylon finally fell

[@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.