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0 After seeing what Firewalk Studios had to offer in April 2023, Sony decided to acquire the studio. After a long wait, Concord was revealed at the Sony State Of Play in May of this year.
Too Little, Too Late
The initial reveal cinematic met a mixed reception. With gamers pointing out that the cutscene tone was too “we have guardians of the galaxy at home” and showed off some relatively bland character designs. Confidence was not instilled when Concord then went on to reveal that it was a 5v5 hero-based shooter. Which at present is an oversaturated genre. After a beta that peaked at just over 2000 players on Steam, the game launched on August 23rd, 2024 to mixed results. Most scores sitting around the 6-7 range. Player counts were sitting at the low hundreds on Steam after just hours of release, now, less than 14 days since launch. Sony has released a statement announcing the closure of the game.
On September 3rd, 2024, less than two weeks after the games launch, Sony issued a statement on PlayStation Blog titled “An important update on Concord”
In this blog post, they thank the Concord community as well as announcing the shutdown of the servers on September 6th, 2024. To “explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
What went wrong?
It’s an unfortunate end for Concord. Development of this game started 8 years ago. At the time this hero shooter was a generally fresh and innovative concept. However, by the time of its release, the market had become saturated. Nothing Concord had to offer particularly strayed from the crowd and offered a convincing argument of why you should play it over other, existing games in the genre.
It didn’t help that Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play hero shooter with Marvel IP was announced. Being playable at around the same time.
Refunds
Thankfully, refunds are available for the game. With Sony stating:
“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:
Steam Store – 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. We 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.”
My heart pours out to the developers of Concord. Here’s hoping that if the game returns, there’s more of a draw, and with a free-to-play model.
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