Poorly received action game Babylon’s Fall will be shut down early next year, less than a year after it was released.
The online hack-and-slash from Square Enix debuted to catastrophic reviews and has now effectively been canceled, with the game being shut down completely in February 2023.
“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, 3 March 2022, and have continued to undertake additional development and operations,” said an official statement. “However, it is with deep regret to inform you that we will be terminating the game’s service on Tuesday, 28 February 2023.”
It is with deep regret that we are terminating the game's service on February 28, 2023.
— BABYLON'S FALL (@BabylonsFall_EN) September 13, 2022
Please read our full Notice for further information.https://t.co/mvaFYmOkYB Thank you so much for your support and playing BABYLON'S FALL.
Babylon’s Fall launched earlier this year on PS4 and PS5 and was met with a lot of criticism. A generic style and dull combat failed to capture the imagination of its players, and now it looks as though the game’s life cycle has come to an end, after announcements that Square Enix would “not reduce the scale of development” following its shaky start.
Although the game will officially shut down in February next year, digital sales have been stopped immediately following the announcement, so you’re out of luck if you were planning to give this one a go.
The game will continue to launch its third and final season, regardless:
“In terms of the plan moving forward, Season 2 will run until Tuesday, 29 November 2022 as scheduled, and the Final Season will begin with the maintenance scheduled on the same day,” said the announcement. “This Final Season is the period during which you can earn the ranking rewards of Season 2.”
Additionally, Babylon’s Fall will continue in-game events until the game is brought offline: “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.”
These include events missions and quest boosts for those still clinging to the game following its death knell, but you have to wonder how many active players there will be at this point.
IGN’s review of Babylon’s Fall gave it 4/10 and said: “Ultimately, Babylon’s Fall just isn’t good. It’s not terrible or broken, it just 'is,' and does little to justify investing your time into it.”
Want to read more about Babylon’s Fall? Check out the gear and emotes it “borrowed” from Final Fantasy 14 and find out what happened to get Babylon’s Fall off to a rough start.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.