Sony have announced that their new hero shooter Concord will be going offline on September 6th 2024 and that sales of the game have been immediately halted with Sony offering full refunds to those that have purchased the game.
Concord had reportedly been in development for 8 years with a budget somewhere in the range of $100-$250 million USD. The game saw very few players during its open beta back in July of this year and when the game launched fully on PC and PS5 a little under 2 weeks ago it was welcomed by a middling reception. The game saw a peak player count of 697 on Steam and even failed to make the top 25 best sellers list on the PlayStation Store.
The game has faced stiff competition in a bloated market of similar shooters and unlike many other competing titles was slapped with a $40 price tag. While Concord promised free updates and cosmetics, its seemingly dull and uninspired character design failed to attract players. Gameplay issues, such as forced character switching and poorly communicated mechanics, as well as no unique modes to set it apart from the crowd further diminished its appeal.
It's unclear whether Sony will try to relaunch Concord in the future, their messaging suggests this could be the case but for now Concord is dead in the water.
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 the 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.
While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.
Customers who purchased from other digital storefronts will also be refunded. More information about refunds from Steam and Epic can be found below:
SteamStore – Steam Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days. Steam will send confirmation of the refund once it has been processed.
Epic Games Store – Epic Games Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days and will contact each customer directly to confirm that the refund has been processed.
Other retailer refunds – For customers who have purchased a physical copy at a retailer location outside of PlayStation directly, please refer to the refund process of the retailer you purchased it from to obtain your refund.
Once refunded, players will no longer have access to the game.
Such a shame - never nice to see a game go down the drain so fast. I hope someone is able to preserve it, unloved as it is. Hopefully also the devs that worked on this aren't immediately laid off, bad enough in the industry as it is.
I personally don't believe this had anything to do with 'diverse and heckin modern audience-ified'.
Surely, the failure of this is more to do with the fact that it was created to ride the Overwatch/Guardians of the Galaxy hype/trend from 2016 but released 8 years too late? Or the fact that the character designs are largely unappealing, or that it was a $40 initial purchase with microtransactions in a genre saturated with F2P giants, or that it released in that saturated genre in the first place, or the myriad of other issues with it? I think it's quite reductive to just blame 'diverse and queer' when plenty 'diverse and queer' games are largely successful.
Easily the worst hero shooter that's been available on the market. No contest, and I've played most of them (if not all of them). Will probably be unpopular, but I have no sympathy or compassion for devs who gloat online about « how they're fine with what they did » when they seemingly had absolutely no interest in building an enjoying experience for people outside their studio. It's a case study of how to fail at designing a hero shooter, it's coming after TF2 and OW and it failed on the most primary aspects.
I can have sympathy for a kid who fail so lamentably. I mean, kids do need to « learn to learn », but when you're an adult that's just pathetic. There are so many lessons to learn before ever making a game for 8 years, burning hundreds of millions into a project. So to me that's not just incompetence but also pure idiocy combined with the arrogance of thinking you could do it without taking lesson from what's considered the best in the genre.
It's as if you wanted to make a platformer, but not only you did not look at what Super Mario does great, you said « nah fuck that ». Well, they are adults, they are responsible, so I have no sympathy.
And now they're saying that they're « making games for those who sent them love ». Shouldn't you strive to receive love for the games you make ? Not for your failures ? Have some pride and shame, idk.
I can give it credit tho, they managed to be memorable. That's definitely an achievement. Every day, when I wake up, I will wonder if I'll ever see a bigger flop than Concord. Somehow it managed to beat Anthem, Lawbreakers (it was a great game I'll die on that hill) and Battleborn
Such a shame - never nice to see a game go down the drain so fast. I hope someone is able to preserve it, unloved as it is. Hopefully also the devs that worked on this aren't immediately laid off, bad enough in the industry as it is.
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I personally don't believe this had anything to do with 'diverse and heckin modern audience-ified'.
Surely, the failure of this is more to do with the fact that it was created to ride the Overwatch/Guardians of the Galaxy hype/trend from 2016 but released 8 years too late? Or the fact that the character designs are largely unappealing, or that it was a $40 initial purchase with microtransactions in a genre saturated with F2P giants, or that it released in that saturated genre in the first place, or the myriad of other issues with it? I think it's quite reductive to just blame 'diverse and queer' when plenty 'diverse and queer' games are largely successful.
The « diverse thing » is just another issue on top of a mountain of issues (and I say issue because it's always been clear that it was just riding the inclusivity train without actually having interesting characters). It really was a game made for absolutely no one but the devs.
A hero shooter can still be done in 2024. Marvel Rivals looks absolutely great, and I say that as someone who doesn't have any interest for Marvel at all, but they could have replaced all character with whatever generic stuff and it would still have some appeal. Concord had absolutely nothing for itself but the graphics.
It really does feel like they just wanted to make some cinematics about OCs they had and then made a game as a byproduct
Such a shame - never nice to see a game go down the drain so fast. I hope someone is able to preserve it, unloved as it is. Hopefully also the devs that worked on this aren't immediately laid off, bad enough in the industry as it is.
Post automatically merged:
I personally don't believe this had anything to do with 'diverse and heckin modern audience-ified'.
Surely, the failure of this is more to do with the fact that it was created to ride the Overwatch/Guardians of the Galaxy hype/trend from 2016 but released 8 years too late? Or the fact that the character designs are largely unappealing, or that it was a $40 initial purchase with microtransactions in a genre saturated with F2P giants, or that it released in that saturated genre in the first place, or the myriad of other issues with it? I think it's quite reductive to just blame 'diverse and queer' when plenty 'diverse and queer' games are largely successful.
ikr? even if Concord had all the surface-level aesthetics of something that's considered "based" and "unwoke" to them it still wouldn't have done much better, it's an insultingly easy nebulous cop-out to blame """diversity""" then the more systemic, corporate, and managerial issues plaguing AAA gaming
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