Concord Was Said To Be The "Future of PlayStation" and Was Supposed To Have Cost $400 Million.

Author

Prithhis Bose

Date

Sep, 21.2024

Some insight into Concord's development came from a Firewalk Studios developer who revealed that the game was touted as "the future" of the PlayStation name and was expected to cost $400 million. Concord has gained a lot of attention in the gaming community in 2024, primarily due to its unfavorable media coverage. Concord, a first-person cooperative shooter created by Firewalk Studios, was released at the end of August for the PlayStation 5 and PC. But only a few weeks later, due to declining player numbers and sales, was its closure declared.

Two weeks after its release, Concord's servers were shut down, it was removed from all digital retailers, and customers who had already paid for it received a refund. Concord had fewer than 700 concurrent PC players at its height and was only expected to have sold 25,000 copies on both the PS5 and PC platforms when it was shut down. Concord cost a total of $400 million, and if a developer from Firewalk Studios is to be believed, Sony saw a lot of potential in a game that was positioned as "the future" of the PlayStation brand.

This information was disclosed in a Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast episode when Colin Moriarty received a message from an unidentified Firewalk Studios developer explaining certain details of Concord. Moriarty had been informed that Concord's budget was estimated to be $400 million, of which $200 million was already provided by Sony and $200 million by ProbablyMonsters, the original parent company of Firewalk Studios. The developer claims that Concord's alpha state was "horrible," which is why Sony paid an additional $200 million to get the game functional. Note that Concord's budget is still unknown, therefore these numbers should be regarded with caution.

The developer, who wishes to remain anonymous, added that Concord was being promoted as "the future of PlayStation" in particular, and that Sony had high hopes of bringing the franchise back through cross-media projects. They likened it to Star Wars. Moriarty points out that the Concord segment of the Secret Level documentary on Amazon demonstrates this. According to what Moriarty was told, Concord's worst flaw was the "toxic positivity" atmosphere that pervaded the game's creation, prohibiting anybody from critiquing any of the choices made.

Concord has caused controversy among players between its announcement and closure. Although Sony and PlayStation put a lot of effort into the game, it was criticized for having the same hero shooter formula as games like Overwatch or Marvel Rivals and not being able to distinguish apart. Sony still plans to investigate alternative possibilities with the Concord IP following its closure, but there are still a lot of unknowns around it.