Square Enix didn’t have a flop only with Outriders (we talked about that the other day), and Marvel’s Avengers isn’t the only live service failure for the publisher…

VGC reported that Babylon’s Fall, a live service game developed by PlatinumGames (available on PC, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4), had one player on Steam on May 3. We’re not kidding: only one player of Babylon’s Fall in the entire world (which is regionally restricted: you can’t play with other players from other regions!) on PC. It was only temporary, as it then reverted to the usual, but still pathetic, 20-50 players at a time dealing with what could be called a failure.

If it was a game that had been available for years and years and didn’t get content updates, one could even understand… but Babylon’s Fall launched two months ago. Outriders and Marvel’s Avengers can appeal to a more extensive player base. Unfortunately, we don’t know how PlatinumGames’ game is doing on PlayStation consoles, which hasn’t been well marketed or generally received, and there’s not a tremendous amount of interest in it.

PlatinumGames said at the end of March that “there are no plans to reduce the scale of development on Babylon’s Fall. Content up to the end of Season 2 is now practically complete, and we have started work on Season 3 and beyond,” but let’s ask ourselves: yes, PlayStation may have a more extensive player base (especially in Japan), but how long can this situation be sustained? If there is no interest, when will development turn into a net loss?

Oh, and PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba (who was promoted to the position in December) has previously said that the studio’s focus is shifting from single-player, action-oriented games to products with a live service model. After Babylon’s Fall, it might be better to consider this shift because their first foray into live service seems to be a significant flop…

Source: PCGamer