"Concord: Brief but Not the Briefest"

Concord’s launch was met with crickets and tumbleweeds, leading to a swift shutdown of its servers. Dive in to uncover the story behind the game's closure.

Firewalk Studios’ Freegunners Fail to Fly, Servers to go Offline Two Weeks After Launch

No Hype Leads to Hibernation

Firewalk Studios’ 5v5 hero shooter, Concord, is shutting down just two weeks after its launch. Game Director Ryan Ellis announced this decision on Tuesday, September 3rd, via the PlayStation Blog, citing the game's inability to meet expectations.

"While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize other aspects of the game and our 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."

The announcement also detailed automatic refunds for all players who purchased the game digitally on Steam, Epic Games Store, and the PlayStation Store. Those with physical copies were directed to follow their retailer’s return policy.

It’s evident that Firewalk and Sony had high hopes for Concord. The acquisition of Firewalk Studios by Sony, driven by confidence in the studio's potential, seemed promising. This optimism was echoed by both Ellis and Firewalk’s studio head, Tony Hsu. The game was set to feature in the upcoming Prime Video anthology series, Secret Level, and Ellis had outlined an ambitious post-launch roadmap, including a planned first-season launch in October and weekly cutscenes.

Sadly, the game’s poor performance necessitated a significant change in plans. Only three cutscenes were released—two from the game's beta and one shortly before the announcement. Whether gamers will see further adventures of the characters remains uncertain.

What Doomed Concord?

Concord's journey was marred from the start. Despite an eight-year development cycle, the game failed to attract significant player interest. It struggled to reach even a thousand concurrent players, peaking at just 697. At the time of writing, only 45 players were online. While these figures exclude PlayStation 5 users, they still fall short of the beta peak of 2,388 players, far below what was expected of a Sony-published triple-A title.

Several factors contributed to Concord’s anticipated failure. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad noted in a tweet that despite strong gameplay mechanics and being "content complete," the game failed to differentiate itself from existing hero shooters, offering little incentive for players to switch.

"The game itself wasn’t necessarily innovative, and the character designs were uninspired," Ahmad wrote. "It didn’t stand out and felt stuck in the OW1 era."

Moreover, its high price point of $40 put it at a significant disadvantage against popular free-to-play competitors like Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, and Valorant. Coupled with minimal marketing, as Ahmad pointed out, "it’s no wonder no one purchased it."

Ryan Ellis indicated in his statement that Firewalk Studios will "explore options, including those that will better reach" players. A future return is not out of the question. The recent revival of the MOBA hero shooter Gigantic, which transitioned from a live-service model to a buy-to-play format six years after its servers shut down, shows that discontinued titles can find new life.

While some suggest making Concord free-to-play, akin to Square Enix’s Foamstars, this change alone won't address the game's core issues: bland character designs and sluggish gameplay. A complete overhaul, similar to the successful redesign of Final Fantasy XIV, might be necessary to breathe new life into the game.

Game8 gave Concord a 56 out of 100, lamenting that "it’s almost tragic to see eight years of work culminate in such a visually appealing, yet lifeless, game." For more on our thoughts on Concord, you can read our review below!