In light of its abysmal player count, why Babylon's Fall was one of the worst releases in 2022

If sales are a category of success for Square Enix, Babylon's Fall's rapidly declining popularity will not be making the Japanese gaming giants happy. The game, launched in March, has not lived up to its expectations, at least on PC.

Though the trailer for the game by Square Enix and developer Platinum Games looked interesting, the game has fallen flat on performance. To make matters worse, its current player base has reached single digits in a little over a month since its release.

Not every video game is made great, and there could be several reasons for the title’s failure. The entire player count of Babylon's Fall is unknown due to the lack of knowledge of its PlayStation numbers. However, the numbers on Steam are worrisome, and there are some pretty apparent reasons for the downfall.

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There are some major reasons behind the decline of Babylon's Fall

When less than 10 people play a game in April that was released in March, it has to be a major failure on the developer's part. With Babylon's Fall, the problems became visible quite quickly, and it is surprising that Square Enix didn't anticipate such occurrences.

The game is massively plagued by poor management decisions, which have ruined the reputation of Platinum Games. Fans had massive expectations from the Nier Automata makers, but were left disappointed.

A major letdown has been the graphics and gameplay. Many players have pointed out the title’s flat and dull gameplay design. The difficulty is placid and barely offers a challenge to the players, while the design levels are poor.

The game's combat is its only silver lining, but only at higher levels. This has led to many players avoiding the game altogether.

The signature excitement and bombastic gameplay that is a staple of Platinum Games is missing from Babylon's Fall. To make matters worse, the game has a monetization system that few are fans of.

It is one thing for free-to-play games to incorporate monetization systems. However, the reception quickly becomes negative when a full-priced AAA game does the same. Many of the items available for real-life money and premium passes affect the economy of the game.

The monetization system could have been overlooked if the game had sound gameplay. Most of the additions make no impact and seem redundant after a point. For one, the lack of functional tutorials is just one of the many things that Platinum Games hasn't incorporated. Such misses have let the game down.

Things were never easy for Babylon's Fall from the onset. Unlike hits like Guardians of the Galaxy, the game doesn't have a ready-made fan base. It is a brand new IP, and the onus of Square Enix was to market it properly. The process left far more to be desired and propelled into poor results for the game.

However, Platinum Games has not given up on their title. Season 2 and 3 content of Babylon's Fall is already underway. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how many players will remain to test all the new additions.