PlayStation canceled Concord, a highly anticipated live-service multiplayer game developed by Firewalk Studios, just two weeks after its release in August 2024.
Despite spending eight years in development, the game failed to meet player expectations and perform well on the market, leading to low sales and poor reception on platforms like Steam.
The core issue behind the cancellation was that Concord struggled to differentiate itself from other hero shooters, like Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends.
Although it featured promising visuals and an interesting class-swapping mechanic, the gameplay and character designs failed to resonate with a broader audience. You couple that with attempts the game studio made to cater the game to the ‘woke’ community, and it ultimately spelled defeat for the young game.
Players criticized its lack of innovation, and many found it difficult to justify its $40 price tag, especially when competing against more popular, free-to-play titles (GamesRadar)(ComicBook).
The game looks a lot like a mashup of Overwatch 2 meets Destiny. When playing the game, movement, and speed feel off, and its generic character build does nothing to help the property.
Game director Ryan Ellis acknowledged the game’s underwhelming launch. He states that while some players appreciated aspects of Concord, others did not “land the way we’d intended.” This led PlayStation to pull the game from sale and issue full refunds to all players.
Although Concord will go offline indefinitely, Ellis hinted that the studio may explore new options to bring the game back in the future, but no concrete plans have been confirmed (GamesRadar)(ComicBook).
The reception of Concord was overwhelmingly negative, with critics calling it a “hard sell” and players giving it abysmal ratings across platforms. Ironically, the game has a character named 1-Off who is a trash bin, while the game got trashed by the critics, and eventually canned itself.
Despite its potential, the game’s brief lifespan and abrupt cancellation have cemented it as one of the biggest flops in PlayStation’s recent history(GamesRadar).
One thought on “PlayStation’s ‘Concord’ Cancelled Just 2 Weeks After Going Live, But What Happened?”