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Concord Was A $400 Million Flop Rife With “Toxic Positivity”

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

After merely two weeks on the market, Sony shut down Concord and of that drip-fed info come forward, we now know this game might have cost $400 million to make. It also had a toxic positivity problem.

A nameless staffer who worked on Concord spoke with Sacred Symbols host, Colin Moriarty, about the game’s downfall. This staffer noted the game’s lavish budget and the culture surrounding the game and studio. Overall, blame was placed on a “toxic positivity” mindset where you just couldn’t bad mouth the game even if it was the “right” thing to do because of “Bungie Magic,” as a good portion of the studio was made up of past Bungie devs.

In 2023, the game went into alpha where it was described as being in a “laughable state,” at that time, the game was already $200 million down the drain, meaning another $200 million was tossed throughout the year. Bearing in mind, the game was teased that same year that it entered alpha with a release year attached.

This “toxic positivity” mindset wasn’t just an alleged thing from one employee, either, as it’s also been backed by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach on Twitter. Moriarty does assert if this is true, Concord was Sony’s biggest game budget-wise and thus is a rather massive failure, as the game not only shut down its servers not long after launch, but all players were refunded.

Hopefully, this comes as a cautionary tale for studios looking to chase the latest trends in gaming and makes studios realize trend-chasing almost never ends well.

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Concord Shuts Down This Week

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

After two weeks on the market, Concord is shutting down this week. Firewalk Studios and PlayStation will be refunding all players.

Game Director Ryan Ellis posted on the PlayStation Blog revealing the closure. They note that while some aspects of the game resonated with players, its initial launch “didn’t land” the way they hoped. Concord will shut down on September 6, 2024.

“… while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”

Now, this isn’t shocking news, Concord was doomed from the get-go. It didn’t have enough to stand on its own two legs in a saturated genre dominated by a free-to-play (unlike Firewalk’s hero shooter) Blizzard game.

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Concord Isn’t Doing So Hot

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

Firewalk Studios’ live service romp, Concord, appears to be lagging behind the expected number we’re Sony had in mind. Despite promising previews, people just aren’t convinced.

Launching earlier this week after its showcase at the May State of Play, Concord debuted to less 700 people, based on SteamDB, since PlayStation doesn’t share that sort of data. We can’t say we’re that surprised as the game didn’t cement a positive path for itself as a premium product competing with freemium products and what many felt was no soul. Then again, at least it doesn’t have a Battle Pass.

This proper debut, which should’ve been at least a couple thousand people was actually less than its beta, which only fostered a little over 2,000 players. This severe lack of interest definitely doesn’t bode well for Sony’s latest attempt to enter the live service market.

As it stands, the game won’t be getting proper content updates until October, so there’s a period for it to just sit stagnant. Hopefully, the game can turn this around and become a tentpole for PlayStation, but unless its numbers on PS5 are absolutely phenomenal, we can’t see them coming back from this.

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Concord Will Not Have A Battle Pass

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

Unlike its contemporaries in the hero shooter genre, $40 Firewalk Studios debut game, Concord, is confirmed to be omitting the Battle Pass system. Instead, it strives to make the game a “rewarding and robust experience.”

On Twitter, the developer shared a laundry list of info following the lackluster betas of the 5v5 shooter. Among stuff like maps, progression rewards, solo PvP modes, and a training mode, it also dropped that the game won’t introduce a the much-maligned staple of the genre.

Beyond the Battle Pass news, fans also learned the game will include new weekly in-game cinematics and post-launch content, such as more Freengunners, maps, and modes, free of charge. These post-launch additions, though, have no direct timeline, but we are going to be getting a roadmap — hopefully — here soon.

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Concord May Include PvE

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

It appears that Concord may include a PvE mode, giving it at least a little leg up to its competition. This was discovered during the ongoing closed beta ahead of its open beta for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

GamingBolt reports that a number of staffers were credited to have worked on PvE, which developer Firewalk Studios hasn’t confirmed yet nor was introduced during the closed beta. Considering the dev has yet to unveil any other mode than PvP, we’re not sure if this might be a mode down the line or if it’s going to be introduced during its August 23 release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNW71AQlzK8

Teased last year, Concord has faced a fair bit of backlash since given more spotlight during the last State of Play. Understandably, people didn’t care for the game as it felt too much like an Overwatch clone with not enough to make an impact or stand out.

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Concord Gameplay Shared During New State Of Play

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments

During the State of Play yesterday, a fair bit of stuff was revealed, including a proper first-look at Firewalk Studios’ Concord. The game was initially teased last year as a game aiming to inspire “social play.”

One of the first reveals was this first-party 5v5 hero shooter. Taking place in the fictional Concord galaxy, you play as a motley crew of beings from across the galaxy, taking up jobs as freegunners traveling the galaxy.

Based on the gameplay shown, which was led up by a cinematic scene featuring all of the playable characters, it looks a lot like Overwatch… like painfully so. Each character has their own strengths and — likely — weaknesses, they work best in different situations, and can all come together to make a strong team if the players behind them get along. Oh, and yeah, they all have different abilities.

We want to hope this will make waves, but it definitely needs to have a lot more soul to capture the audience. Luckily, we don’t have long to wait to see the game more in action as a beta is earmarked to launch in July and a global launch on August 23. It also looks to be a day-and-date PS5 and PC game.

What do you think? Does this get you interested in what Concord has to offer? Let us know below!

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