Sony has officially shuttered the developers of Concord. With Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, announcing the shutdown of Firewalk Studios, the developers of Concord. Hulst also announced the shutdown of Neon Koi, a mobile game studio under Sony’s banner. This shutdown comes as despairing news, which will affect over 210 Jobs. Let’s take a further look into the story and unravel why Sony just shuttered the developers of Concord.
Concord Performance and shutdown
Concord, on its launch two months ago, absolutely sank without a moment to stay afloat, leading to one of the biggest blunders in company history. Sony invested hugely into Firewalk Studios with Concord being the studio’s debut game. Sony bore all development costs for the game, which in recent news have been reported to be around 400 Million USD. With previous reports indicating somewhere around 200 Million, whatever number it might be now, it’s still plausible to say that Sony made a gamble with Firewalk, and it didn’t pan out as they hoped.
Concord saw less than 700 players on its release and the disastrous 2-week window before it was pulled and shut down until the forcible future. Concord has become one of the biggest disappointments and most unsuccessful Sony first-party offerings in history.
Axing Firewalk Studios
Sony acquired Firewalk Studios in 2023 after two years of the companies announcing their partnership of a live service multiplayer title exclusive to the PlayStation 5 and PC. Sony’s acquisition of Firewalk depicted the straight confidence of Sony in the Studio’s capabilty to deliver a solid AAA multiplayer title, with insiders even claiming “Concord was the future of PlayStation.”
Future of Concord and Sony
Sony is standing firm and is in a far better position than its competitors. It looks forward to learning the lessons from Concord, taking this setback into account, and focusing on more first-party multiplayer experiences to avoid repeating history. As for Concord, there seems to be little hope for the title to ever see the light of day again. With Firewalk shuttered, there is little to no hope for the title.
Sony has a long history of learning from mistakes and hitting it out of the park every other time. The company is confident in its approach, and for the few Concord fans, this news can be seen in any manner they deem fit, as sometimes, not all stories have a happy ending.
Summary
Sony shutting down Firewalk Studios and the mobile developer Neon Koi comes as a piece of blight news for the teams and staff at the respective studios. Fans can only hope for better delivery next time around as the Chapter of Concord in the history of gaming’s biggest blunders comes to a close.
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