Concord developer, Firewalk Studios, is shut down!

Internal letter sent out by Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Herman Hulst. https://sonyinteractive.com/en/news/blog/an-update-from-playstation-studios/

Good news. Hopefully a lesson will be learned but I doubt it will.

Ouch! 😆

Next time add hot looking characters you morons.

GOOD RIDDENCE!

"...crafting engaging online experiences alongside our single-player games..."

Nice.

But Sony will learn little.

Man, that really sucks for all of those employees. I bet you, the people who greenlit this and let it be released, are still employed.

Wasn’t it Herman Hulst who was really big on this game and studio? Was it him who thought that this was the next big thing for Sony, their “Star Wars” franchise? 🤔

Sucks for the 6 people who were expecting this game to come back as free to play lmao

"Expanding beyond PlayStation devices and crafting engaging online experiences alongside our single-player games are key focal areas for us as we evolve our revenue streams. We need to be strategic, though, in bringing our games to new platforms and recognize when our games fall short of meeting player expectations."

Ouch, some people aren't going to like that.

I wonder how many threads will be made about this.....

Hopefully the good people move on to other studios with better culture and leadership.

@navyguy21: if you think that means Xbox you are going to be disappointed.

This was a day one PC release that flopped miserably.

this lol

@Archangel3371: "Wasn’t it Herman Hulst who was really big on this game and studio? Was it him who thought that this was the next big thing for Sony, their “Star Wars” franchise? 🤔"

If that's the case, he should be held accountable for this disaster. This can't be your leader.

@navyguy21: "Ouch, some people aren't going to like that."

I don't know why they didn't see this coming as it was obvious and clear as day.

I think they will eventually bring live service games to Xbox, and PS titles to PC closer to launch.

100 million spent on this studio could've been used to keep Japan studio alive.

Sony, the laughing stock of this generation.

Talented team. I'm sure there's plenty of studios within Sony that are lucky to have them.

Wow, that was a big investment that turned out to be all for nothing. I figured they would re-release Concord as f2p or put them on another game.

I hate to see people lose their jobs, but it is insane to release a game that is out of touch with what consumers in the video game market want and charging $40 for it when all the competition is working with a f2p model and has characters gamers enjoy playing with. It is like Sony and Firewalk wanted this game to fail. It is a shame, because the core gameplay wasn't bad.

I agree with this. Japan Studios was amazing and thought outside of the box and they get closed while this studio gets bought and closed.

Firewalk was making a F2P game before Sony bought them.

I wonder how different the game would have been if they were never purchased by Sony.

I'd imagine they had more creative freedom regarding character designs.

Fear not, Sony is releasing a Pro you can play a better version of older games and re-releases and live happy knowing it's not an Xbox because Xbox is like everything wrong with the world and true gamers know you'd never encourage Sony to do better like buying a competitor's consoles and games.

Sony: closes down Studio Liverpool, Evolution Studios, Japan Studio, Pixelopus, Zipper Interactive

Also Sony: acquires Firewalk and $200 million Concord, shuts both down one year later

Ouch lol

They sucked. Is what it is.

Yeah, that's rough and entirely unsurprising.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/29/24282900/sony-shutting-down-concord-firewalk-studios

The biggest flop in entertainment history....

Isn't he still at the helm for Sony? Yikes.... Sounds like he's got about as good a bead on things as Don Mattrick. Bleak times for Sony.

@TheEroica: I believe him and someone else are currently at the helm. Co-captain so to speak.

Concord

Just 1 word and 7 letters that kills every Sony fanboys shilling and xbox bashing.

400 million down the drain

That is exactly the play they will have to make, we know from live services that we have seen the maximum possible audience from the moment the title launches is essential as a good percentage of those people will only engage casually, fast forward 12 months and you're probably left with maybe 10% of that launch audience who will stick with the game and will ultimately be the source of the revenue going forwards.

Where dem cows hiding?

Moooooooooo

🤣😂

@saint-george: they are buying up all the PS5 pro’s so Sony can earn back a little money.

@Chutebox: never thought I’d see the words ’concord’ and ’best seller’ together. Wow

Poo cows. lol :P

When I heard the rumours of the cost of concord I felt they were in the firing line.

I was really hoping they could have kept them around as a support studio for their GaaS games but, I guess that was wishful thinking. Hopefully some of those folks end up on other PlayStation Studios' teams.

Personally was hoping that Firewalk would get the chance to produce a singleplayer FPS after this. Something unique and away from the Hero shooter goldrush.

But it seems Sony has zero interest in a singleplayer FPS and promptly closed them.

Sony is a "gimme that GaaS" kinda company.

It would take way too much time and money and there's still no guarantee they'd be able to pull it off.

Honestly, the biggest takeaway from Concord is that it's increasingly more difficult to create a new AAA IP when it takes countless years and millions of dollars to make. The market and gamers expectations can dramatically shift within the development lifecycle of a game. It really does seem like more and more live service games absolutely need early access periods. It's crucial that games fail early as opposed to years down the line.

About the same number of threads expressing "outrage" over Playstation studio layoffs/closures and asking for Sony leadership to be fired..

So, none..

Cows avoiding this thread I see 😂😂😂

I hope the developers land on their feet

They're lurking like any defeated faction.

How does this even happen? When in history has a business spent so much money and gave up so quickly? I legitimately don't understand

This was all Jim Ryan's bright ideas that Herman was just following thru with. Now they realize they should have axed all his greedy corporate focused initiatives when he left.

So they basically didn't learn anything from it.

The thing to learn from it being "maybe people don't want a live service game?".

Boy oh boy, Sony, maybe stick to what you're good at?

Love that corporate leadership. Just love the failing upwards. The constant chase to increase profits in a finite market. Love love love it. Just keep butchering this craft and art that I love.

And remember: when your live-service game bombs, DOUBLE DOWN ON THE IDEA OF GOING WITH LIVE SERVICE GAMES! Obviously DO NOT learn anything from your failure.