After its launch last August 23, PlayStation has announced in its latest blog that Firewalk Studios’ Concord will now shut down moving forward after receiving feedback from various players, critics, and fans amidst its poor launch week that proved to be a disappointment from a game that was eight years in the making.

The competitive gaming scene has been quite on a buzz after the recent announcement by PlayStation. Concord did not even last more than two weeks on the market and was said to be quite a bust for many as it failed to sell the estimated copies and even come up with a promising tally on players despite having 2,300 gamers present in its beta launch.

This shutdown by Concord marks the worst entertainment launch of all time. Many critics are even calling the PlayStation title the worst game since the 2023 flop The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which was criticized for its lack of unique game features that eventually led to its downfall.

Pulling the Plug

Concord was hyped to be one of the up-and-coming competitive esports titles of 2024, only to come up short with a poor performance in its launch week, not being able to sell more than 25,000 estimated copies while also having a all-time peak of 697 players on Steam. In the end, PlayStation went on to pursue the inevitable – a total shutdown of the hero shooter game.

“We have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players,” says Concord game director Ryan Ellis in a PlayStation blog post. “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.”

Concord was first announced in the PlayStation Showcase back in May 2023 with a CGI trailer. The game would go on to release a beta in July 2024, only to meet underwhelming player numbers with the most accurate estimate at 2,300 players. In retrospect, it did receive promising scores from game reviewers, but many factors played out to affect the game’s overall performance in the market in the long run.

Failing to Thrive in the Market

As said above, Concord managed to bring a peak of 697 concurrent players on Steam – which is even lower than the game’s beta phase and a disappointing number for a major release. Many critics believe that it was the game’s lack of a unique selling point that proved to be a major reason why it failed to thrive in the market where it had to go up against the likes of Fortnite and Overwatch in the hero shooter genre.

On top of that, some even blamed the expensive price tag that PlayStation put for the game, which is set at $40. Considering the fact that both Overwatch and Fortnite are free-to-play titles, it is worth noting that Concord made a poor decision to come up with the way they released the game in such a competitive market.

This ending for one of the hyped games of 2024 is quite a disappointment. However, it does serve as a promising learning point for many developers and publishers in the long run, what not to do in coming up with a title that is in the hero shooter genre.