Eight years of work were spent on creating Concord, a game commissioned by Sony that the company had high hopes for. The game was released on August 23, but after less than two weeks, the company decided to withdraw it from sale. Anyone who bought it will receive a refund.
Sony has announced that it is pulling the plug on online shooter Concord just two weeks after its launch. The multiplayer game was released exclusively for PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23, but has struggled to attract players. Ryan Ellis, game director at developer Firewalk Studios, wrote in a post on Sony's website that the game is being taken offline (September 6 – ed.). He also said that anyone who purchased the game will receive a full refund.
“Sales of Concord will be stopped immediately and we will begin offering full refunds to all players who purchased the game on PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game on PlayStation 5 through the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, your money will be refunded to your original payment method,” Ellis wrote.
Concord gameSteam
False start
Concord is a so-called “hero shooter” reminiscent of popular titles like Overwatch and Valorant. Players are part of a team of characters with different abilities and can compete in head-to-head matches or in other game modes that involve taking over an objective or controlling part of the arena.
Eight years in the making, Concord was the latest title from Sony as the company looked to conquer the multiplayer gaming market.
However, the game received mixed reviews at launch. While critics and players praised the graphics and gameplay, they also pointed out the lack of new elements and a fresh take on the genre.
The result? The game wasn't a huge hit. According to SteamDB, which tracks how many people play games on the PC platform, Concord's highest concurrent user count was 660. Which is very low for a game of this type. By comparison, the most played game, Counter-Strike 2, has had over 1 million players consistently logged in since August 2022.
“The premiere didn't turn out the way we wanted”
In his message, Ryan Ellis wrote that Firewalk studio “listened carefully” to player feedback after launch.
“While many elements have been well-received by players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our launch have not been as we had hoped,” he wrote. He thanked players who tried the game and noted that “the passionate community that has grown around the game means the world to us.” He also suggested that this may not be the end of players' adventures with the title. He wrote that taking the game offline would allow the developers to “explore options, including those that will better reach our players,” he added.
Multiplayer games, or live-service games that regularly receive updates to keep fans entertained, are lucrative for companies, and Sony is investing in them. The hit of the beginning of this year was Helldivers 2, whose success surprised the developers. The first part already had its loyal fan base, selling over 12 million copies.
Concord didn’t meet with such raptures even when Sony announced it in May. Even then, many predicted that finding a similar audience would be difficult.
The live-service gaming market is notoriously difficult for new products to break through. Statistics from analytics firm Newzoo, which tracks which games are being played the most, consistently show that old titles, including Minecraft, Roblox and League of Legends, still top the charts. They have a stable player base, and people know there will always be someone to play. That’s not so certain for new titles.
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