Firewalk Studios has announced that Concord is being taken offline later this week on September 6.
Additionally, the game has been pulled from sale and full refunds are being given to everyone who purchased it. This news comes less than two weeks after it was officially released on August 23 for PlayStation 5 and PC. Once Concord is taken offline and refunds are processed, it will be made inaccessible to everyone who owns a copy of it.
In a statement posted on the PlayStation Blog, Game Director Ryan Ellis thanked the community that Concord fostered, but acknowledged that it was far from the hit that the studio hoped for.
“Concord fans – we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined our journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us.
However, 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.”
It’s a tragic end for Concord, as it faced an uphill battle from the moment it was properly revealed this past May. Between indifference from the public due to its similarities to Blizzard’s Overwatch, stiff competition in the live-service space, and its $40 price tag, Concord struggled to garner much of an audience. During its open beta in July, its Steam player count peaked at 2,388 concurrent players. Those numbers dwindled even lower for the official release, capping out at 697 PC players on launch day. While console numbers were unknown, estimates of its combined sales performance on PC and PS5 didn’t paint an optimistic picture. It’s a shame too because Concord is a genuinely good game that’s a lot of fun. It’s not a perfect game, but there are a lot of great ideas here.
Where Firewalk and Sony go from here with Concord is anyone’s guess, even if a pivot to a free-to-play model seems like a likely option. But the bigger question is where does Sony go from here with Firewalk as a studio, and with regard to their wider plans for live-service games. It’s a topic that I was already planning to discuss this week before today’s news, but now it’s one that’s been made even more complicated.
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