Sony brings multiplayer shooter Concord It went offline after just two weeks due to extremely low interest in the game. A new report shows that the publisher will need a long time to recover from the investment. For example, Concorde could have cost at least $400 million to develop.
The news was shared on the PlayStation podcast Sacred Symbols. The show’s hosts spoke with members of the Firewalk Studios development team and discovered that the failed Concord left deep scars on Sony.
Concorde has been in development for 8 years and cost around $400 million. Sony believes strongly in the project and has referred to the game internally as “the future of PlayStation.” This will be Sony’s Star Wars.
How could it have gone so wrong? According to the developer, Sony was partly responsible for the failure. For example, any form of criticism directed at the shooter was ignored by a company culture that was described as “toxic positivity.” The game was praised to the skies and all negative feedback was ignored.
Creative director Ryan Ellis, who recently resigned, reportedly addressed the entire development team at Firewalk Studios after the launch. He was particularly emotional when it emerged that there was absolutely no interest in the title from the public.
The staff said that Ellis really believed in the project. Unfortunately, the game was shut down two weeks after its release and all players received their money back. What should happen next for Concord? That is unknown at this time.
Many players have already shown that Concord can be a good co-op PvE shooter. Or maybe Sony will soon make the shooter free-to-play?
I spoke extensively with someone who worked at Concord, and it was a lot worse than you think.
It was referred to internally as the “future of PlayStation” with Star Wars-like potential, and a “toxic positivity” development culture stifled any negative feedback.
It costs $400 million to make. pic.twitter.com/F5O0oy4gaQ
– Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024