Babylon's Fall binned after less than a year

Square Enix and PlatinumGames are binning off their beleagured live service game Babylon's Fall.

Future updates planned for the game have been scrapped, and its servers will go dark on 28th February next year. After that, you will no longer be able to log in and play.

Babylon's Fall only launched in March this year, but has struggled to attract players from the get-go. Square Enix confirmed it was pulling the plug this morning, and said it would run a final season of content from November until the game goes dark.

"Greetings Sentinel Force, thank you very much for playing Babylon's Fall," Square Enix wrote in a blog post today.

"With the desire of delivering an exhilarating online multiplayer action RPG set in an elaborate high fantasy world, we launched the game's official service on Thursday, 3rd March 2022, and have continued to undertake additional development and operations. However, it is with deep regret to inform you that we will be terminating the game’s service on Tuesday, 28th February 2023.

"As a result, we will also cancel the large-scale updates that we had planned. In terms of the plan moving forward, Season 2 will run until Tuesday, 29th November 2022 as scheduled, and the Final Season will begin with the maintenance scheduled on the same day. This Final Season is the period during which you can earn the ranking rewards of Season 2.

"As a way of expressing our gratitude to all our players, we plan to implement as many events and other initiatives as we can, leading up to the end of the service."

Babylon's Fall immediately got off to a bad start on Steam, with less than 1000 players online worldwide at launch, and criticism of the game's monetisation model, service plan, and £60 price tag.

Developers were initially hopeful the game could be turned around, but player numbers continued to tumble - down to as low as 10 on PC the month after launch, and just one player the month after that.

In a note from the Babylon's Fall development team, staff thanked fans for "a great deal of enthusiastic messages of support alongside keen observations of issues and suggestions for improvement", which "made us feel that we were able to create the world of Babylon's Fall together with our players".

"Despite all of your support," the team concluded, "we are truly sad and sorry to say that we will be unable to continue with the game's service."