Babylon’s Fall is now being given away for free at some stores

Babylon’s Fall, the troubled Platinum and Square Enix RPG, is reportedly being given away for free at some GameStop stores.

As first noticed by @videogamedeals, the American chain of video game retailers is reportedly in the process of throwing away old stock of the game, which was pulled from sale earlier this month. 

However, some users have reported being handed free copies of the game by staff.

Others have claimed that they called their local stores, but they had no remaining stock of the game.

One user told VGC: “I tried calling 10 stores last night, they all told me they destroyed copies. Not just threw them away, they were instructed to break them.”

In the UK, physical copies of Babylon’s Fall don’t appear to be available at many major retailers. However, Currys is selling copies for £15.

Babylon’s Fall was widely panned by critics when it launched in March. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the title is one of the worst reviewed games so far on PS5 and one of the worst games of the year.

At one point, the game boasted a single concurrent player on Steam. 

The game will officially end service in February 2023, at which point it will be completely unplayable.

In a statement on the game’s official website earlier this month, Square confirmed that the game will shut down and that the “large-scale update,” that was planned for the game has been cancelled.

“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,” the statement read. “However, it is with deep regret to inform you that we will be terminating the game’s service on Tuesday, 28 February 2023.”

“In the future, Babylon’s Fall will almost certainly be frequently used as an example of how not to launch a live service game,” opened VGC’s review of the game.

“Not only does it fail at the most basic elements, such as a visual style that’s incredibly unappealing, or a mission structure that is somehow both dreadfully short and tedious, but the game also tries desperately to establish itself as a live game, filling your screen with as many opportunities to micro-transact as it can, despite the fact it actually costs $60 to purchase.”