It seems that Square Enix’s latest 3D-platformerBalan Wonderworldcan’t catch a break lately. While fans were excited to seeSonic the HedgehogandNights Into Dreamscreator Yuji Naka bring a brand-new IP to the table alongside formerSoniccharacter artist Naoto Ohshima, many became skeptical ofBalan Wonderworldas soon as its demo was released digitally, which featured bugs, frequent pop-in, and poor performance overall.
As the game officially released just a few weeks ago, fans were disappointed to see that not much had changed since the pre-release demo.Balan Wonderworldwas instantly panned by critics, followed by incredibly poor sales, andeven accusations of plagiarism.Now, it seems like thegame’s demo will be officially removed by Square Enix from digital storefronts soon.
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Over on Twitter, the official JapaneseBalan Wonderworldaccount announced yesterday that the digital demo for the game will beremoved from all digital storefrontssoon. On PS4/PS5, Switch, and Xbox One/Xbox Series S/X, the demo was removed today, April 14, at 11:59 pm Japanese Standard Time. However, the Steam version of the demo was removed a few hours ago on April 15 at 2:00 am JST.
No reason was given by either Square Enix or the officialBalan WonderworldTwitter account for the demo’s removal, but fans on Twitter suspect it to simply be a result ofthe game’s poor sales.It was also not clarified as to whether fans who have already downloaded the demo ahead of its removal will still be able to access it later on. Players who downloaded and played theBalan Wonderworlddemo were able to earn a special commemorative costume in the full game. However, with the demo being taken down, it’s unclear what will become of the costume.
For the time being, Square Enix says that they will disclose information on how the special costume can be obtained by players without the demo later on in the future. UponBalan Wonderworld’s official release, the game received a day-one patch meant to address player feedback from the demo, as well as a fix to special effects which were reported to putsome at risk of epileptic seizures.
Aside from sales and gameplay troubles,Balan Wonderworldhas also been the subject of aninteresting case of positive review bombing,where fans discovered that it seemed bots were leaving overwhelmingly positive reviews of the game on Metacritic, despite it being very poorly received by fans and critics alike. While Square Enix could be removing theBalan Wonderworlddemo in an effort to distance itself from the game, it will be interesting to see if it receives any more updates in the future.
Balan Wonderworldis available now for PC, PS4/PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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