Despite its flaws, this multiplayer shooter title wasn’t the terrible game many thought it was. You can read our review here— and while there’s plenty to criticize Sony and Firewalk Studios for the way they released it, it does make us feel a little sad for a team that spent years trying to make a good experience. The sales failure of Concord It is well known and documented, with a decreasing number of players that makes it very difficult to find games, that is why Sony and Its developers have decided to remove the game from the PlayStation, Steam and Epic Games Store and that it will stop working very soon. All players who have purchased it will receive a refund. There is even a program for those who have bought it physically to get their money back.
The details of this decision can be found in The Official PlayStation Blog.
When will it stop working? Concord?
The servers will be shut down and the game will stop working on Friday, September 6, 2024
What will happen in the future with the game?
The statement says that Firewalk Studios “is determining what is the best path forward”. That may mean they will try to do a relaunch of Concord in the future, but it is also possible that we can already give it up for dead.
We’ll have to wait for an official announcement or credible rumors in the future to find out. For now, we can say that Concord is dead.
Why did it fail? Concord?
That they have decided to withdraw Concord from stores, refunding those who bought it and shutting down its servers is a direct result of its failure in sales. Some analysts estimate that fewer than 25,000 copies of the game would have been sold. and there were times when it would get under 100 concurrent players on Steam (although it supposedly had better numbers on PS5).
The reasons why the game failed are multiple and could be seen from the release of the trailer, which received many more dislikes than likes.
- It’s a game for another time: Supposedly, planning for Concord began in 2016, when Overwatch It was the biggest game in the world and everyone tried to imitate it. Eight years later, there is not as much desire for games like this anymore.
- Its price: It’s true that many gamers say they prefer a premium game to a free one full of microtransactions, but that doesn’t represent the general public. Even though it had a reduced price, it simply couldn’t compete against established free games that offer similar experiences, including the rightly criticized Overwatch 2 .
- The ‘games as a service’ landscape has changed: : The entrepreneurs of the video game companies saw in these titles that were always updated and had elements that were always on sale a gold mine, but the players are already tired of the abuse that they commit. It is true that Concord was going to offer all of its major updates for free, but it was presented as a game-as-a-service anyway.
- There is no room in the market for a game like this: The world of team-based multiplayer shooters is packed. Everyone interested in titles of this genre is already playing. Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch 2, Valuing or other similar titles. Titles like Marvel Rivals are offering more different ideas that can open up a niche.
- Mal marketing: Sony failed to sell the game to potential players. It just seemed like “another game” Overwatch» And there’s already one of those. It did offer some good ideas in terms of gameplay, but it never presented them in a way that made them look appealing.
- Outdated visual design: The first image that gave Concord The gamer community’s response was terrible and the biggest sign that it was going to be a failure, some even correctly guessing that it was going to be pulled from stores quickly. Its “space adventure” aesthetic in the style of Guardians of the Galaxy It made sense in 2016 when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was on top of the world, now people are a little tired of it.
- The vicious circle of failure: Multiplayer titles like this rely on a healthy number of active players to be playable. It’s not just that the game started with a low number of players at launch, but the sheer scope of those numbers caused more players to shy away, afraid of paying money for a game they wouldn’t be able to play.
Some will celebrate the death of Concord and others of us hope that PlayStation has learned its lesson and finally backs away from its plans to release games as a service. But we feel sorry for Firewalk Studios.
