What were you doing on a Friday night? Well, Concord players were busy watching it temporarily go offline as an error message heralded the end of the race for the Platinum Trophy.
Ever since we learned the game would be disappearing, there’s been a lot of discussion about whether Concord will actually return in the future, with one industry analyst calling the game’s current situation an “unprecedented situation.”
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When news broke of Concord’s impending closure, Circana executive director Mat Piscatella said he thought the Sony shooter’s situation was unique. “What’s happened to Concord is unprecedented,” he wrote on Bluesky (thanks, IGN). “I see people looking at Anthem as a similar game, but… it’s not. Anthem was the best-selling game of its release month in February 2019, the 15th best-selling game of the year, and is still playable today.”
On the question of the game’s possible return, he added: “On one hand, the game and the IP were so thoroughly rejected that one might think it can’t be salvaged. On the other hand, so little is known about the game that perhaps it could return in a different format and with a significant update. I think this is an unprecedented situation and all options are on the table, so anyone’s guess is probably as good as mine.”
Of course, one option that’s been floated in many quarters is to return Concord to free-to-play, with the idea being that by removing the traditional purchase requirement, the new version of the game might be able to improve upon the low player numbers it suffered following its initial release. However, whether this move would solve all of the game’s problems (or solve enough of them) to drive the resurgence PlayStation is hoping for is obviously up for debate.
Concord’s situation is unprecedented. I’ve seen people refer to Anthem as a similar game, but… it’s not. Anthem was the best-selling game in its release month of February 2019, and the 15th best-selling game of the year, and it’s still playable today.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) September 3, 2024 at 7:01 pm
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As we wrote in our review of Concord : “Underneath all this rubble and baffling business decisions (like not offering it as a PS Plus Extra), there’s still a decent game, but why would you put up with all that frustration when the game has no distinct personality and there are better free alternatives available right now?”
Amid all this discussion, the game has gained quite a bit of attention as a meme, or rather, a meme that has been gossiped about by people all over the internet due to its weird circumstances. One sign of this is a Morbius-inspired Change.org petition titled “We’re all busy that week – please release Concord again.”
While this is clearly a joke, it had a paltry 25 signatures when we first reported on it last week, and as of this writing, it’s approaching 2,000 – 1,934 to be exact. Who knows if any of these people actually care about playing Concord, but this petition has certainly garnered more attention than I thought it would in just five days.
Would you like to see Concord return in some form? Let us know below!
