From its reveal at PlayStation’s State of Play, Concord was doomed to fail. The pushback and negative sentiments after the event placed the Firewalk Studio’s 5v5 first-person shooter on a difficult pedestal.
Over the weekend, analysts estimated that the game may have sold as few as 25,000 copies making it one of the biggest flops in recent history of AAA releases. VGInsights tracked 22,440 units sold. Since its release on August 23, the game’s all-time peak concurrent player was 697 on Steam. At the time of writing, the game had only 128 players, according to SteamDB.
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“Concord fans—we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar,” wrote game director Ryan Ellis in a message published on PlayStation Blog.
“However, 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.”
Firewalk will refund every player who has already bought the game—whether they purchased via Steam, Epic Games Store, or other retail outlets. Once refunded, the player will no longer have access to the game.
While this may seem like the end of Concord, Ellis added, “We’ll keep you updated, and thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy”.
The last statement may seem like a glimmer of hope for the first-person shooter, but many believe it is mere business rhetoric and that the game is dead and gone.
The failure of Concord means Firewalk is at risk of being shuttered or bound to face mass layoffs (if they are lucky)—which appears to be the current modus operandi in the game industry. For context, layoff happened at Rocksteady Studios, and it was linked to the poor commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Why did Concord fail
The popular sentiments around Concord may not be great but some players enjoyed the game. On Metacritic, Concord garnered an average of 65 on PC and 62 on PS5. Game Rant had this to say about Concord in their Metacritic review (which uncannily predicted this day):
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“Those wanting to roll the dice on Concord will find an excellent FPS full of exciting abilities, intense battles, and eye-popping visuals. The game’s character designs, premium price point, and general lack of interest from the public may make it so Concord never really gets a chance, and so potential consumers need to weigh the risks of investing $40 on a game that may be dead before too long.
“Personally, I am glad to have played Concord and I will continue playing it as much as possible, and will be sad if the day comes when its player count dwindles to the point where it no longer makes sense to support it.”
Several other players praised the visuals and mechanics of the game. If there were things that stood out in the game, then why did it flop to the point where PlayStation had to pull the plug just two weeks after its launch? I have a few propositions.
#1. The FPS genre is saturated
Concord was launched into a saturated genre. Earlier this year, Xbox Games CEO Phil Spencer hinted that one of the problems of the game industry was that the audience was not growing, meaning every new game is served to the already existing audience—who by the way have an ocean full of games to choose from.
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What happens is that players who are already hooked on other FPS games will find it hard to set them apart and try something new. The fact that some of the veterans are backed by tournaments is an extra incentive to keep grinding, with the hope of becoming a champion someday.
#2. Concord charged for what other games in the genre offered for free
After reading through maybe a hundred comments, another sentiment that stood out was that Concord charged $40 for what other games in the genre offered for free. Games like PUBG, Counter-Strike 2, Destiny, The Finals, Apex Legends, and so on are all free-to-play. One comment even suggested that these other games are more stabilized compared to Concord.
Developers that make free-to-play games recoup their spending over time through microtransactions like skins, weapons, and season passes.
#3. Concord did not distinguish itself enough
After the reveal of Concord, the studio’s design director Josh Hamrick said the game tried to distinguish itself by borrowing elements from strategy and fighting games. “We focused a ton of our attention and our tech on building a strong gameplay foundation of tight core movement, precise and visceral shooting, and expressive abilities,” Hamrick said at that time. Sadly, that was not enough to make Concord pop into the hands of players.
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#4. The game did not deliver all that was promised
Firewalk Studios tried all it could to distinguish Concord from all the other FPS in the market. One of the strategies they announced was that the game would feature weekly cinematics with new story arcs.
“Every week when you log into Concord, you will be welcomed with a new cinematic vignette that will give you a chance to see our characters off the job,” said director of IP Kim Kreines. That has not happened so far. Guess it didn’t take long for them to realize how difficult it would be to sustain that effort.
Perhaps, the problem was not really from Firewalk and Concord but from the way the game was marketed. I also stumbled into a post that said PlayStation should stick to single-player games.
Just as Netflix is overexerting itself to convince subscribers that they can do more than binge on movies. Despite years of investing millions of dollars, Netflix Games is yet to fly. Those who want PlayStation to only make single-player games will likely continue to boycott anything that falls out of line.
