Why didn’t Concord take off again? Let’s deal with the shooter from Sony and studio Firewalk

The name Concord is probably unfortunate. First it was jet passenger planes, and now games with that name are failing even faster than expected. The release of the competitive shooter Concord became one of the loudest failures in the history of the gaming industry. The project from the studio Firewalk, which Sony had high hopes for, did not meet the expectations of both gamers and analysts. At first, users were skeptical, but the scale of the failure turned out to be much worse: according to analysts, it managed to sell only 25 thousand copies, and the peak online Steam did not exceed 700 people.

Against the background of extremely negative reaction, Sony was forced to take radical measures. The developers announced that the game’s servers will be shut down on both PC and PlayStation 5 starting September 6. Despite this, Sony has no intention of giving up on Concord for good. Firewalk plans to review the main aspects of the game and try to find solutions to the problems in order to revive the project.

The case was a significant blow to Sony’s gaming division and a clear example of how big companies can face setbacks in the gaming industry. The company has started a refund process for the failed Concord project. PlayStation Store returns can take 30 to 60 days, while Steam and Epic Games Store will send users a return confirmation. Meanwhile, those who purchased the physical edition of the game will have to directly contact the retail stores where the purchase was made, hoping for cooperation from the seller.

Analysts believe that the main reasons for the failure of Concord lie in ineffective marketing, an inflated price, as well as a lack of uniqueness in the oversaturated genre of competitive shooters. These factors combined made the game uncompetitive despite Sony’s support.

Rhys Elliott, an analyst at Midia Research, believes that for players, especially in the current macroeconomic environment, a fee of $40 for a new game may not be acceptable. In his opinion, the high cost made Concord less affordable and limited its potential audience.

Elliott notes that launching Concord as a premium game made it difficult to attract users and build an engaged ecosystem. Network effects, where a large audience makes a game more attractive, are critical to the successful development of network games. Therefore, according to the analyst, Concord should be launched in a free-to-play format or at least included in the PlayStation Plus subscription. This could give the game a chance to stand out from the crowded genre and bring in more players.

After the unsuccessful launch of Concord, Sony management recognized that the company did not have enough original intellectual property rights. This statement emphasizes the need to improve the strategy of creating unique and attractive games.