Sony has officially killed Concord and shut down the game production studio. Concord’s servers have been shut down due to poor sales just two weeks after the launch of Firewalk Studios’ competitive team shooter game. Firewalk game director Ryan Ellis has opted to move into a more supporting role following Concord’s struggles, and Sony has said it will consider its options for the project. The decision has been made.
“After much consideration, we have decided that the best path forward is to permanently discontinue the game and close the studio,” Harmen Hulst, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s studio business group, said in a statement today. said. “We would like to thank everyone at Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication,” a representative told Bloomberg News 172 employees at Firewalk Studios will lose their jobs.
The online gaming business is cutthroat, and Concord may have suffered from a long development period. This means that other teams’ shooters have already become well-known and have defined expectations for players. Many similar games are free to play and financially supported by battle passes and seasonal models. Gamers may have been put off by the $40 price tag for new properties, or the genre may simply have become too crowded for Concord to enter.
Whatever the reason, today’s news marks a new and difficult chapter for the game development world. It’s an unusual commercial failure of this level for Firewalk Studios, but it’s yet another closure in an industry that has seen much turmoil in recent years. Layoffs and closures have been making headlines in the gaming industry, with some recent cases like Firewalk being acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment just last spring. Netflix abruptly shut down AAA Studios last week before the team could announce any projects. Microsoft closed three studios in the Zenimax family earlier this year. As fewer parties control the growing share of the games industry, tolerance for experimentation and slim profit margins is also likely to shrink. And this kind of sudden disruption is likely to become increasingly common.
Updated, October 29, 2024, 2:52 PM ET: Story updated with additional context regarding Concord, Firewalk Studios staffing numbers, and broader studio closure trends.
