The story of the video game Concord seems like the chronicle of a death foretold. Just 11 days after its launch with much fanfare on PlayStation 5 and PC, the shooting game that Sony hoped would replicate the success of Helldivers 2 not only reports poor sales but also enters the history books as one of the biggest failures in the industry due to the hefty financial investment (nearly 100 million dollars) and the years it took to develop. Now, they have announced the definitive closure of its servers, the removal from official stores, and the refunding of money to the few who managed to buy it.
Poor financial decisions, mediocre artistic direction, lack of charisma, little content, and an overly optimistic vision, disconnected from market reality, served as a breeding ground for this story.
It all started six years ago when a small and unknown studio, called Firewalk (which Sony acquired in April 2023), led the design of a game meant to rival Overwatch.
It was the year 2018, and Blizzard was enjoying the unexpected success of a new IP in a territory they had never explored: shooting games (First Person Shooter). Overwatch revitalized the genre with gameplay characterized by highly balanced matches where players chose not generic soldiers with customizable skins but characters with their own stories, personalities, weapons, and distinctive abilities.
This marked the beginning of the boom of the so-called ‘Hero Shooter’, and almost all major studios wanted to jump on that new trend. Titles like Paladins, Apex Legends, Valorant, and Rogue Company appeared, along with a sequel to Overwatch itself in 2022.
A failure that was on the horizon
But Concord did not even come close to the success of these titles. Since its announcement at the PlayStation Showcase on May 24, 2023, doubts began to arise about the game.
Its selling price, set at 40 dollars, was seen as excessive in a market where there are similar and higher-quality options like Apex Legends and Valorant, which are free, generating initial rejection from players and the specialized press who saw no justification for spending that amount on a title from an unknown studio.
The character design did not help either. Critics were quick to point out the use of non-binary pronouns and clear similarities between the characters of Concord and those from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. What seemed like an attempt to attract an audience fond of comics and Marvel movies turned into a source of criticism for the lack of originality and the game’s own personality.
Moreover, the launch of Concord was marked by a lack of content. Players found themselves with a title that offered very little in terms of variety of game modes, maps, and characters, limiting replayability and long-term interest. In an era where games as a service (GaaS) largely depend on constant and updated content, Concord fell very short.
The marketing campaign was another determining factor in its failure. Many players did not know of the title’s existence until its launch, and its launch trailer has yet to reach 200,000 views on YouTube, evidencing a lack of adequate promotion and a disconnect with the community. Without a solid player base, the game never had the chance to take off.
In fact, the low sales reflect the reality of this failure. Analysts leaked this week to the portal IGN that Concord sold only 25,000 copies, with 10,000 on PC and 15,000 on PlayStation. On the platform Steam, the game reached its highest number of concurrent players with just 697 people, and an average daily of only 123 players, devastating numbers for a game that aimed to compete in such a saturated market.
“Live service games have a high failure rate… Sometimes, a single-player game can have a slow launch but eventually finds its way to success. But time is now running out for Concord because unless the player numbers increase soon, there will be no one to play against,” anticipated Liam Deane, the lead analyst at the consulting firm Omdia, who criticized the business idea behind the title.
The final blow came when Ryan Ellis, game director at Firewalk Studios, announced this Tuesday the closure of the servers and the cessation of sales in the official store.
In a statement published on PlayStation’s official blog, Ellis mentioned: “While many aspects of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other elements of the game and our initial launch did not meet our expectations. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to discontinue offering the game offline starting September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that better reach our players.”
With this premature closure, Concord joins the list of major failures in the industry, a reminder that in the competitive world of video games, even large companies (as previously happened to Atari or Sega) can fall if they fail to connect with their audience and deliver a product that meets expectations.