When considering the games industry, there’s a belief that some titles can have a redemption story – a second chance, a do-over. If games like Destiny 1 and 2, The Division, No Man’s Sky, Halo Infinite, etc., have proven, some games can rise from the ashes and fulfill their potential, raking in success and leaving behind the controversy.
However, as the past many years have proven, it’s often the exception rather than the rule. You usually get one shot to make an impression, and that’s it. Anthem, Marvel’s Avengers, Redfall, Skull and Bones, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Overkill’s The Walking Dead – the list of failures stretches on and on. Add Firewalk Studios’ Concord to the list as well.
For those out of the loop or who forgot (and who can blame them), the multiplayer shooter launched on August 23rd for PS5 and PC before being removed from sale and servers shut down on September 6th. Aside from the underwhelming critical response, sales were seemingly in the gutter – analyst Simon Carless estimated about 25,000 units sold.
To say this is Sony’s biggest failure in years would be an understatement – it easily ranks among the greatest first-party fumbles in gaming history. And that’s without factoring in the eight-year development cycle, as revealed by lead character designer Jon Weisnewski. Or the fact that it sold at $40, which, despite falling short of the $70 price tag of many triple-A titles this generation, is still $40 too much compared to the competition.
Of course, Concord isn’t cancelled. Right? Director Ryan Ellis said the team is exploring options, “including those that will better reach our players.” Nothing concrete was promised, but the team would keep players, or however many were aboard for the ride, updated. This seemingly indicates some plans for a comeback at some point. Maybe Sony had seen the error of its ways and is entertaining a free-to-play model, however that would work. Perhaps it realized the fallacy of launching another multiplayer shooter with hero shooter elements in a saturated market and opted for something different.
Unfortunately, the truth, or at least reports of it, is far harsher than it seems, with Ellis allegedly stepping down as game director, according to three sources who spoke to Kotaku’s Ethan Gach. On top of this, there’s a general pall of not knowing what’s next for the studio. While pitches are reportedly being explored for concepts that are “completely different” and internal speculation about the studio acting as a co-development studio for other first-party projects, there are also fears of Firewalk being shut down. This is to the extent that some have already left the studio while others are preparing for the worst.
It’s easy to see why there would be such fears. Firewalk is allegedly one of Sony’s “more expensive” studios on a per-head basis (with 150 to 170 employees in total). Concord’s failure is one thing, but the publisher also had its fair share of layoffs this year. Then there’s the fact that it’s scaled back its live service plans, as seen with Sony London’s closing and the cancellation of its fantasy RPG.
Even the shuttering of The Last of Us multiplayer title reportedly wasn’t a “bloodless endeavor” per Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier revealed on the Friends Per Second podcast that “heads were rolling at Sony as a result of that one” and it had a four-year development cycle compared to Concord’s eight. Long story short, it’s not looking good for Firewalk.
One could go on about the game’s flaws, from the character designs and lackluster kits to dull features like Crew Bonuses and persistent deployables. The developer also pushed out weekly cinematic vignettes – cutscenes that expanded on the cast, even if they weren’t necessarily telling a grand narrative. Nifty in concept but ultimately inconsequential and another drag on the budget. Imagine Firewalk making weeks and weeks of those vignettes that will never see the light of day. How well that will look when factoring in development costs remains to be seen.
While Concord’s sales are abysmal, and no title with such a long development cycle couldn’t have spent tens of millions, there’s been some back and forth on the game’s budget. A recent report by Colin Moriarty indicated that it cost $400 million and that a culture of “toxic positivity” was present that ignored any negative feedback. Take it with massive grains of salt, but while Ethan Gach couldn’t confirm the budget, he did corroborate the toxic positivity.
“Some sources I’ve spoken with blamed a head-in-the-sand mentality carried over from the studio’s Bungie roots. A sense the game would come together because the team was too good to fail.” As someone who followed the Destiny series for almost its entire lifespan, I find it frustrating to see this approach reportedly festering among other studios. Talk to anyone who waited years for the series to get its act together, even among all the allegations of toxicity, the constant over-monetization of the shooter, or the lackluster content releases.
Bungie’s hubris has come back, time and again, to drag the studio down, as seen with Destiny 2’s Lightfall. Such was the negative response to the expansion that sales of The Final Shape were impacted, leading to more layoffs and a significant rethink of the franchise’s plan moving forward.
It’s easy to see a similar philosophy on Concord but without the benefit of anything to make it shine among the competition. Still, you have to wonder how many changes the title has undergone throughout its many years; how much feedback from players and internally was ultimately ignored because the team’s leadership allegedly thought it knew better. You would think the industry would know better after years of failures in the live service space, multiplayer or otherwise, but apparently not.
Where Concord goes from here, if anywhere, is anyone’s guess, but when Firewalk is reportedly pessimistic about its fate, any comeback looks unlikely. Sony could dismantle the studio and assimilate some of its employees to work on other projects, which would be a decent outcome. The artists, graphics designers, programmers, Q&A testers, and more shouldn’t suffer because of the mistakes made by management.
Maybe Fairgame$ could benefit from some of that multiplayer “expertise,” but that’s another headache the publisher will have to worry about in due time. Even with its live service plan in shambles and several projects cancelled, it hasn’t gone out of its way to provide reassurance. No, “We learned from our mistakes and are focusing on single-player titles,” or even promises that future live service games would be handled differently.
Instead, we have a $700 mid-gen “refresh,” rumored remasters of Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone in the works, and still no announcements for what the future holds regarding brand-new first-party titles, let alone additions in established franchises.
Is it enough to hit the “Panic” button and say that arrogant Sony is back and making all the wrong decisions? Of course not, especially when you look at its success over recent years (if not the past three decades). However, if Concord’s handling and failure have proven anything, it’s that despite Sony’s success, the company – just like any other major publisher or console manufacturer – is far from infallible.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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