Sony Pulls Video Game 'Concord'; Subsidiary Says Launch “Didn't ...

Sony has decided to pull video game Concord not even two weeks into its release.

The multi-player shooter failed to gain traction after making its debut on August 23 on PlayStation 5 and PC. Ryan Ellis, game director at Firewalk Studios, which was acquired by Sony Interactive in 2023, confirmed the decision Tuesday in a blog post.

“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,” Ellis wrote. “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.”

A full refund will be offered to anyone who purchased the game, the post noted.

Similar to popular games like Valorant and Overwatch, Concord was reportedly developed over eight years. It never took off, according to various third-party trackers of online game play, peaking at about 660 concurrent users, a tiny fraction of what the top multi-player games draw.

The financial investment in a major game title, which can easily reach into the tens of millions, can dent a company’s financials given the additional marketing costs associated with launching it. In August, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav labeled the performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League “disappointing,” especially compared with the industry-leading results for Hogwarts Legacy in the same period of 2023. Given Sony Corp.’s unique and multilayered structure, with hardware and entertainment blended with gaming, it is hard to gauge the impact of a misstep like Concord, but at the very least it appears to be a missed opportunity.