Less than two months after Sony moved its live-action shooter Concord after a disastrous launch, the company announced on Tuesday that it is shutting down developer Firewalk Studios and closing the book on the infamous game. Firewalk staff will leave Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and parent company PlayStation will “permanently discontinue” the game after admitting it fell short of its goals with the multiplayer title. In addition to shutting down developer Concord, Sony said it is also shutting down mobile game developer Neon Koi.
Firewalk Studios is closed
Firewalk’s closure marks the end of an ignominious chapter for Sony, which saw the company launch Concord on August 23 to the sound of crickets. The $40 hero shooter failed to find an audience in a competitive genre full of free-to-play options, reaching a dismal 697 concurrent players on Steam before being purged from PlayStation and PC shelves and taken offline less than two weeks later. release
“We have spent a lot of time over the past few months exploring all of our options,” said Hermen Hulst, CEO of the Studio Business Group at SIE, in an internal email to employees. “After much consideration, we have determined that the best course of action is to permanently discontinue the game and close the studio.”
Hulst said certain aspects of Concord don’t appeal to enough players, despite some of its “exceptional” qualities. “The first-person PvP shooter genre is a competitive and ever-evolving space, and unfortunately we fell short of our goals with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to improve our live service capabilities to ensure future growth in this area.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Firewalk Studios signed off one last time, calling its development team “truly world class.”
“We’ve taken some risks in doing so—combining aspects of card battles and fighting games with first-person shooters—and while some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t work out as we’d hoped, the idea of adding new things to the world is crucial to moving forward media forward,” says the studio’s post.
Firewalk logs out for the last time.
Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer gaming to a larger audience. Along the way, we assembled an incredible team that was able to:
– Guide how to grow a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024
Sony said the decision to close Firewalk and Neon Koi was carefully considered and ultimately the right one to “strengthen the organization”. The company also said it would work to accommodate the laid-off employees of both developers across its global portfolio of game studios where possible.
The failure of Concorde
Firewalk Studios was founded in 2018 as part of ProbablyMonsters, led by Bungie veterans. Sony acquired the developer in April 2023 and reportedly invested over $200 million in its first Concord game. Industry insiders say the shooter, which Sony acquired as part of its live-action venture, cost $400 million to make, making it Sony’s biggest loss in the game.
A retro-futuristic sci-fi hero shooter with an art style and witty humor reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy, Concord launched on August 23rd for $40. The game was practically dead on arrival, with around 10,000 copies sold on Steam and around 15,000 on the PlayStation Store.
The double-digit number of concurrent players resulted in Sony taking the game offline on September 6 and refunding all players who purchased the game. At the time, the company said it would “explore options,” leading some to believe that Concord could return in a different form, perhaps as a free-to-play game or on Sony’s gaming subscription service, PlayStation Plus.
In our review of Concord, we said the game was a “passable heroic first-person shooter, very similar to Overwatch” that failed to stand out in a crowded field in meaningful ways.