Developer Platinumgames has confirmed that their upcoming live service game Babylon’s Fall contains gear and emote assets that have been “Borrowed” from Final Fantasy XIV. Players of Babylon’s Fall phase three closed beta had expressed concerns about this, after noting the similarities of some gear to that featured in the popular title from Square Enix, who is also producing the Platinumgames title, accusing the studio of “ripping off” the beloved MMO.
Yosuke Saito, the producer of Babylon’s Fall, penned a blog post addressing the concerns in which he confirmed that indeed used gear taken from Final Fantasy XIV. During this post, he stated that it was actually the beloved Naoki Yoshida, often endearingly referred to as Yoshi-P by his fans, who was behind the usage of assets. He stated:
When I gave my Babylon’s Fall presentation at a company meeting, Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida was also in attendance and offered his help, to which I replied, ‘Yes, please!’ This is how the plan came to fruition. We then carefully implemented the data while closely coordinating with the Final Fantasy 14 team.
By borrowing these elements Saito claims that the studio was able to implement a far wider range of gear and emotes than the studio had originally planned. He also stressed that most of the gear players can receive in-game are actually unique to Babylon’s Fall. He continued by stating:
The data borrowed from Final Fantasy 14 was used for gear from the introduction to mid-level range of the game, which is why they were so prevalent in the closed beta test. We apologize for any concerns this caused. We are working hard on the development of the game so as not to disappoint our players and appreciate your continued support.
To emphasize that everything was done above board, Saito’s statement was bolstered by comments made by Yoshi-P himself in which he confirmed what Saito had said, himself stating:
I myself am a huge fan of online games, a gamer, and a developer. That’s why I couldn’t be happier if Babylon’s Fall succeeds and reinvigorates Japanese online games while boosting the number of players in the genre. So, I said, ‘Let’s use FFXIV’s assets too. We have so many, it’d be a shame to limit them to FFXIV alone,’ and that’s how it all started. Back then, I didn’t realise that it would become such a hot topic… Of course, the subtle design changes and adjustments during their implementation into Babylon’s Fall will be fully supervised by the FFXIV team to ensure that they fit into its world.
As stated above, Square Enix is producing the title so such collaborations are not uncommon, least of all in the Japanese market. This might have even been a nonissue had Platinumgames only stated they were doing so early on, rather than needing players to call attention to it after the closed beta.
Babylon’s Fall will be available on PlayStation5, PlayStation 4, and PC at some point in 2022.
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