From announcement to release, the future of Concord has always been troubled—and so has the studio behind the live-service game, Firewalk Studios. After taking the game offline less than two weeks after its launch, Sony has finally shut down the studio effectively ending the jobs of around 200 people.
In a statement sent to staff on Tuesday, PlayStation co-CEO Hermen Hulst confirmed that Sony was pulling the plug on Firewalk Studios and permanently sunsetting Concord citing the game’s poor reception.
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“We consistently evaluate our games portfolio and status of our projects to ensure we are meeting near and long-term business priorities,” Hulst said in the message to employees. “As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen SIE’s Studio Business, we have had to make a difficult decision relating to two of our studios—Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios.”
“While mobile remains a priority growth area for the Studio Business, we are in the very early stage of our mobile efforts. To achieve success in this area we need to concentrate on titles that are in-line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to reach more players globally.
“With the re-focused approach, Neon Koi will close, and its mobile game will not be moving forward. I want to express my gratitude to everyone at Neon Koi for their hard work and endless passion to innovate.
“Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September, certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options.
“After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftmanship, creative spirit, and dedication”.
Firewalk Studios was founded in 2018 and was acquired by Sony in 2023. Concord was the studio’s first game. The PVP multiplayer FPS launched on PS5 and PC on August 23, 2024, but was pulled offline by PlayStation eight days later. It was reported that Concord sold less than 25,000 copies from launch to shut down.
Former Firewalk Studios devs need your help
At the time of writing, several former employees of Firewalk Studios have taken to LinkedIn to announce their layoff from Firewalk following the studio’s closure as well as use the opportunity to solicit the help of their connections to land new roles.
“The journey with Firewalk Studios comes to a close, I’m now on the lookout for my next adventure,” wrote senior visual designer Bryan Vu.
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“With Firewalk Studios closing down I’m now actively seeking new work,” wrote visual designer Zachary Gainer.
“I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support,” wrote design director Josh Hamrick. “If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message.”
Technical animator Matthew Woock had a lot to say but cautiously held back. “Firewalk Studios is no more,” he wrote on his LinkedIn update. “Full studio shutdown, Concord will not return. I won’t speak much on the studio/game/Sony in the future, just know that a lot of effort was put into my time at FW.”
Several other former employees also announced the closure or simply reminisced about their time at Firewalk.
Concord launched to a mixed reception, bagging a Metascore of 65 on PC and 62 on PS5. In the internal email, Hulst acknowledged that “The PvP first-person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title”.
At the time of writing, we could not spot a comment from any former employee of Neon Koi. However, that may start showing up in the coming days. While it lasted, Neon Koi promoted itself as a studio that “make action games with epic stories to foster lasting connections with players around the world”.
The new trend where studios either get it right or get shut down is disturbing. As noted by industry analysts, it is leading to the churning out of the same type of games with every studio trying to play it safe. This is stifling innovation and denying the industry the ability to create something epic.
