PlayStation has announced that it will be taking its newly launched live-service game “Concord” offline this Friday, just two weeks after its initial release on August 23, 2024. The decision comes after the game, developed by Firewalk Studios, struggled to attract a significant player base and received mixed feedback from the gaming community.
“Concord,” a team-based first-person shooter often compared to the popular game “Overwatch,” faced significant challenges from the start. The game allows players to assemble a crew of Freegunner space outlaws aboard the spacecraft Northstar and engage in online matches between two teams of five members each. However, the game’s limited audience made it difficult for players to find matchups, severely impacting the overall experience.
According to third-party data from the PC gaming site SteamDB, “Concord” had a mere 30 active players at the time of the announcement, with a peak of only 697 concurrent players since its launch. These numbers are drastically low for a new PlayStation release and reflect poorly on the game’s performance, which ranked near the bottom of PlayStation’s weekly sales charts.
In a blog post published by PlayStation on Tuesday, Firewalk Studios’ game director Ryan Ellis addressed the decision to take the game offline. “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,” Ellis wrote. “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.”
Ellis further explained that the studio had decided to take the game offline starting September 6, 2024, while they “explore options, including those that will better reach our players.” As part of this process, sales of “Concord” have been halted immediately, and PlayStation will begin issuing full refunds to all players who purchased the game on PlayStation 5 or PC.
Customers who bought “Concord” through the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct will receive refunds directly to their original payment method. Those who purchased the game through other platforms, such as Steam, the Epic Games Store, or in physical retail stores, will be refunded through those respective channels. Once refunded, players will lose access to the game.
The swift removal of “Concord” highlights the challenges of launching a successful live-service game in a highly competitive market. As PlayStation and Firewalk Studios consider their next steps, the situation serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the gaming industry, where even high-profile releases can struggle to find their footing.
