Concord is already shutting down to “explore options” – refunds are coming

Less than two weeks after its launch, Firewalk Studios and Sony are taking Concord offline, halted sales of the hero shooter and are issuing refunds to all players. The game’s servers will be shut down on 6th September 2024, but it’s not necessarily the end of the line as they will “explore options” for the game’s potential return.

Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Game Director Ryan Ellis gave the following statement:

“Concord fans — we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us.

“However, 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. 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.”

In effect, this is a full cancellation of the game’s launch on 23rd August. All players who bought the game through the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct will have an automatic refund from Sony – these will take 30-60 days to appear on bank statements, apparently. Steam and Epic will also refund players who are on PC. If the game was purchased physically, you’ll have to talk to the retailers directly, but Sony has sanctioned the refund programme, so you shouldn’t have much trouble.

It’s widely thought felt that trying to do a premium hero shooter when the market is dominated by a small handful of free-to-play titans, like Overwatch, Valorant and the soon to be released Marvel themed shooter, was a misstep. So was launching in the middle of Gamescom with little to no splashy marketing support. It resulted in a concurrent player count that maxed out at 697 players on Steam and has barely scraped three figures on PC in the last few days. With reports and speculation that sales are at around 25,000, it’s a massive underperformance for Sony, and they had to do something to spur it on.

As for the game’s future? Well, going free-to-play is the obvious answer, it just depends how long it will take Firewalk to work microtransactions into the game to shift the business model, and then Sony needs to pick a launch window that gives them a fighting chance.

It’s a real shame, because we enjoyed this alternative to the genre mainstays. In our Concord review, Jim said, “Fun, quickfire game modes and solid multiplayer shooting help steer Concord through an asteroid field of scepticism and unhinged vitriol but the space odyssey doesn’t end here. Like any live service, Concord’s ongoing vitality and potential appeal to new fans will hinge on its post-launch support, content roadmap, and building on Firewalk’s exciting foundation.”