Summary
PlayStation is still in the process of analyzing the failure ofConcord, according to Sony President Hiroki Totoki. The company official said as much in a recent Q&A session, which also saw him speculate on some of the reasons whyConcordended up the way it did.
The first and last game from Sony subsidiary Firewalk Studios hit the market on August 23. It was shut down just two weeks later, withConcordthus becoming what’s believed to be the costliest failure in Sony’s live-service effortsto date.
Now thatConcordis confirmed not to be coming backin any shape or form, Sony President and CFO Hiroki Totoki reflected on the short-lived game during a Q&A session held after the company’s latest earnings call. Among other things, the executivesaidthat Sony remains “in the process of learning” what went wrong with Firewalk’s hero shooter. Totoki did offer some theories about this, like noting that any new IP carries an inherent risk and is far from a sure bet.
Concord Didn’t Have Enough ‘Gates,’ Sony President Says
The Sony boss also opined thatConcorddidn’t have enough “gates” in the form of “user testing” and other forms of evaluation. The timing of these checks was another potential problem that he identified in retrospect. “We should have done those gates much earlier than we did,” he explained. Instead, Sony was seemingly unaware that the game could be a major flop until theConcordopen beta failed to generate any significant interesta month ahead of the hero shooter’s market debut.
Sony’s Organizational Structure Likely Did Concord No Favors
Totoki also acknowledged that the structure of Sony’s business might have contributed to thefailure ofConcord. Specifically, he described Sony as a “siloed organization,” suggesting that its individual departments are presently fairly isolated from one another and conceding that this might have caused a disconnect between them inConcord’s case.
AlthoughConcordended up being one of the most high-profile failures in Sony’s history, it remains to be seen whether its fate will make the gaming giant rethink its overall live-service foray. After all, the only other live-service game that Sony published in 2024,Helldivers 2, ended up being a massive hit; it sold over 12 million copies in its first three months on the market, thus becoming the fastest PlayStation game to reach this figure. As of late 2024, Sony still has several live-service titles in the works, including Haven Studios’Fairgamesand Bungie’sMarathon. The latter is presently believed to be targeting a launch in the second half of 2025, whereasFairgamesis still without a tentative release window.
Concord
WHERE TO PLAY
Assemble your crew of Freegunner space outlaws and team up online with friends for thrilling 5v5 PVP modes across the galaxy in Concord.Concord is a new team-based first-person shooter for PS5® and PC*. Handpick your personal roster of Freegunners from the crew of the Northstar – a group of outlaws and adventurers working as guns-for-hire.ASSEMBLE YOUR CREWFrom powerful mystics to skilled gunslingers and helpful healers, each Freegunner brings their own unique skills, personality, and abilities that cater to a wide-range of playstyles.Create your own custom squads of Freegunners with Crew Builder to bring an arsenal of different role types to the match or focus on your favourite characters to master their gameplay and unlock unique modifiers, cosmetics, background lore, and more – you decide when to play your characters and how you impact the match.PLAY. PROGRESS. PERSONALIZE.Earn and unlock a wide range of character customization items and learn more about the characters, worlds, and factions in the Concord Galaxy with the Galactic Guide.You’ll also be able to progress toward and unlock Freegunner Variants—versions of each of the 16 Freegunners with added Combat Trait modifiers to their base abilities. As you learn and master the characters, Combat Traits empower you to tailor each character to your playstyle.
