Concord’s shutdown has been confirmed following an unprecedented flood of negative reviews and poor sales numbers. PlayStation has announced that Concord’s closure has been scheduled for September 6, 2024, giving players a three-day heads-up to wrap things up and prepare to step away from the game. Following Concord’s shutdown, players who purchased the game will be refunded their $40 USD investments in the coming month.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews, Sony’s Concord shutdown is extremely surprising considering that most gamers expected that the company would attempt to salvage the game first. Many expected the game to become cheaper or free-to-play, to give it a chance to thrive, but Sony has decided to take it offline. 

PlayStation Concord closure

Concord Shutdown Imminent—Have Your Fill of the Game before Sept. 6

On September 3, less than two weeks after the game was launched, Ryan Ellis, Game Director of Firewalk Studios, released a post announcing the Concord shutdown. The sale of the game was halted immediately and he revealed that it would officially go offline on September 6, 2024. The Concord shutdown will result in a full refund for all players who purchased the game, regardless of which platform the purchase was made on. 

“…while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”

Ellis confirmed that the refund would be issued back to the original payment method, leaving out any unnecessary plans to provide game store credits instead. Once the refund process is complete, the Concord shutdown will be complete, locking players out from accessing the game after September 6. 

Does this mean a permanent end to Concord? Not necessarily. According to the PlayStation blog post, the company is still working on Concord’s future plans to “explore options, including those that will better reach our players” and “determine the best plan ahead.” This provides no clear insight into their plans, but it does suggest that Sony hasn’t given up on the game entirely. 

The decision to refund players makes it clear that they aren’t going to stick to their $40 USD strategy and re-release the game as is, but there are multiple ways Concord could make a comeback. The simplest strategy would be to switch to a free-to-play model and explore user interest in the game, but considering the current reviews, players may not bother with the game even if they could play for free. Sony could also choose to invest more time in the game and redesign the characters and mechanics to offer something “fresher,” but that could take a lot of effort and time. 

Concord Sony shut down

The Brief History of Concord

First-person hero shooter Concord was released for PlayStation and Windows on August 23, 2024. Developed by Firewalk Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the live-service shooter spent over 8 years in development, and its makers were hoping the game would take on a life of its own, creating an IP they could capitalize on for years more. Lead character designer Jon Weisnewski spent the last five years working on the game, and in his own words, the team was “strapped in and ready to push it for years to come.” 

Early testing was conducted in July and PlayStation Plus members were all invited to participate in the Beta Early Access weekend to give the game a shot. Moves like this showed just how confident Sony was of Concord’s future plans and its potential for success. Concord was also scheduled to feature in an upcoming Amazon Prime Video anthology series Secret Level, which is expected to focus on a different game every episode. The fate of this collaboration is now unknown.

Despite all of these big plays, the game had already been on the receiving end of controversially negative attention. Most of the hate came from those who hadn’t actually tried the game, and even after release, the fate of the game and Concord’s eventual shutdown occurred as a result of naysayers who didn’t think the game held any merit.

Concord future plans

Image: The oddball character designs are not as bad as they have been mad out to be.

On launch, its Steam concurrent player count barely made it to the 697 mark, before dropping lower and lower every day. Those who purchased and played the game found it hard to find matches in the multiplayer game. For a round to begin, the game required 10 players that could be split into two parties, and with the number of concurrent players sliding down to double digits, this became considerably harder. The long wait times to start a game further discouraged many players who eventually gave up and dropped the game. 

Priced at $40 USD, Concord was also asking for a lot of money when, in comparison, other similar live service games were free to play. Reports indicate that Sony only managed to sell about 25,000 copies overall, an abysmally low number for such a mainstream, high-budget title. 

Concord shutdown refund

What Went Wrong with Concord? Just about Everything

The game sounds simple enough—you get to play as your favorite Freegunner who features their own unique set of skills and abilities, as you work with your team to take down the enemy team. It’s nothing new and that’s entirely the problem. Concord offered very little to distinguish itself from its competitors. While aspects like It-Z’s Cosmic slip skill and Daw’s Dome generator offered some interesting ways to build your own niche style of fighting, fans were not impressed.

There is also the pricing element of the game and the decision to broach the live service gaming segment. Similar shooting games like Overwatch, Dota 2, and Fortnite, and non-shooting games like Genshin Impact and Guild Wars 2, have all taken the free-play route and added optional paid content in-game for the more dedicated gamers. The Concord shutdown has been linked to their attempt to achieve the same results with a paid game. Suicide Squad failed at breaking into the market and now Concord is following suit.

The biggest nail in Concord’s figurative coffin was the character design. Many gamers complained they were too “ugly” or “woke” to evoke a desire to play as them. The diverse cast of characters has evidently worked against the company. Just as many major organizations are backtracking on their DEI policies, it seems Sony will have to do the same with its games.

Those who came out online to say that they enjoyed playing the game were mocked by the rest of the gaming world and accused of having been paid off to write a positive review. Still, no matter how bad the large majority think a game is, there will always be a number of them who enjoy it. The remaining few players have begun speedrunning the game, trying to achieve some of the trophies before PlayStation finalizes Concord’s closure. It adds some humor to the situation, but not nearly enough to make up for the negative attention. 

The Concord game fails where few others have succeeded and while it’s a disappointing result, all hope might not be lost. Sony’s Concord shutdown could lead to a new and improved version of the game in the future, and we hope that the developers are able to get it right the next time. However, all this may just be optimistic thinking and Sony could ultimately be planning to shut down the game and the studio before moving on to other projects.

tagged in Concord future plans, Concord game fails, Concord shutdown, Concord shutdown refund, Concord Sony shut down, PlayStation Concord closure
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