When Concord was taken offline just two weeks after launch, there was some indication in that statement this was not a shuttering, but a time for “retooling” with hints it may surface in some new form down the road. Here was part of the statement that was issued a few days ahead of the takedown from director Ryan Ellis:
“[W]hile 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.”
Ellis has now apparently stepped down from his role as director, and the fate of both Firewalk and Concord are unknown. The statement says “initial” launch and “exploring options that will better reach our players.” The idea here was that the game may go dormant and then re-emerge with some sort of free-to-play relaunch to draw in more players.
No, I don’t think it will.
The recent report that Concord cost $400 million over the years may in fact be overblown, but even if the truth is a quarter of that, with what happened with release, it’s essentially a total loss for Sony. It reportedly only made around $1 million at launch and then Sony just flat-out issued refunds, even going so far as to remove review copies from PlayStations that were once played by critics. This was all completely unprecedented.
The financial issue is one aspect. It costs millions upon millions to run a live service game that needs ongoing content. You may think that Sony is “pot-committed” at this point with so much invested so they may at least want to try free-to-play, but there are limits to that, and as one of the most significant failures in gaming history, I believe we are well past that point.
There is also no indication that going free-to-play would even change things. The game had a completely free beta a few weeks before launch that drew just 2,300 concurrent players on Steam. The $40 price point may have been ill-advised for the genre, but it wasn’t the main issue.
The main issue was…the existence of the game. The gameplay was actually kind of fine, and a giant rework of that would not move the needle. Rather, it simply felt like just another hero shooter that did not stand out, while releasing what is arguably the least aesthetically appealing roster of hero characters in genre history. It would cost millions and loads of development time to what, re-do all the designs? It’s just not possible, not to mention how heavily the game has already leaned on mo-cap cinematics. You cannot change the appeal of this roster.
Plus, the game is now a meme, etched in stone as a record industry failure. I absolutely feel for Firewalk, but less so for PlayStation management who reportedly though this was going to be huge for them. But no, there is no coming back from this, free or not.
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