PlatinumGames CEO says that it’s difficult to keep action exhilarating in multiplayer

PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba has spoken about the challenges of developing Babylon’s Fall but insists that the game is shaping up well. Speaking to IGN Japan, Inaba said (via Google Translate), “I didn’t have the know-how about multiplayer, so it was a difficult part. The exhilarating action and multiplayer that we are good at are not so compatible, so it was quite difficult to balance them.”

Of course, every multiplayer gaming fan has had numerous exhilarating experiences in multiplayer games. But PlatinumGames is known for eye-bleedingly insane single-player experiences, which require a more scripted approach to design. Exhilaration emerges more organically from multiplayer games and ensuring this happens often requires a very different design approach.

This transition from one design approach to another, as well as the technical challenges involved in delivering a smooth, stable online experience, has been challenging for the Babylon’s Fall team. Platinum’s previous attempt at a multiplayer game, Scalebound, ran into so many problems that it was eventually canceled, but Inaba says the studio never shies away from a challenge.

And it looks like hard lessons learned on Scalebound have been applied to Babylon’s Fall, which recently ran a closed beta test.

“In the test, we received various reactions, including positive and negative ones,” said Inaba. “The closed beta test was interesting because it was a process that we haven’t done in game making so far, and it was very fresh. I think that Babylon’s Fall has been well selected and the game is in good shape.”