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The latest big PlayStation game, the multiplayer shooter Concord from developer Firewalk Studios, was a misfire upon release earlier this month and might have sold only 25,000 copies. [Update: Just over a week since launch, Sony has announced that Concord will go offline and refunds will be issued.]
GameDiscover.co analyst Simon Carless told IGN that Concord likely sold 10,000 units on Steam and 15,000 on PlayStation as of the end of August. Concord struggling to sell would not be a surprise, as the game peaked at 697 concurrent players on Steam and is currently outside the top 100 best-selling games on PlayStation.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella told IGN that fewer than 0.2% of PS5 active players were logged into the game on Monday, August 26. Liam Deane, an analyst at Omdia, told the website, “The Steam numbers are so bad that even without the exact data on the PS5 side we can be pretty certain that the game is doing very badly.”
The analysts that IGN spoke with said Concord failed to move units and drive engagement due to a variety of reasons, including a lackluster marketing campaign, a relatively high price point ($40 USD), and a lack of stand-out features in a market already filled with similar types of games.
Midia Research analyst Rhys Elliott said Concord should have launched as a free-to-play game, or as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription catalog like Quidditch Champions is doing for its own launch today, September 3. Elliott pointed out that it’s not too late, as Sony could add Concord to PlayStation Plus, but admitted, “The damage might have already been done. First impressions matter.”
Concord is Firewalk’s first game. It was in development for more than eight years, according to lead designer Joe Weisnewski. “Concord has so much humanity and depth to it. I really hope people give it a shot. Insanely proud of the game and we’re strapped in and ready to push it for years to come,” the developer said.
Sony was at one point planning to release 10 live-service games by 2026 but later cut the figure in half as the company outlined a plan to focus on quality over quantity. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Online, once described as the developer’s most ambitious game ever, was canceled.
According to a report, one of the last major decisions that former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan made was a mandate for PlayStation’s teams to make more games-as-a-service titles. A number of PlayStation developers were said to be upset by this, and the blame apparently fell on industry veteran Connie Booth. A 30-year veteran, Booth left PlayStation in October 2023, and no reason for her departure was ever provided. Some believe she was fired. Booth is now an executive at Electronic Arts.
Looking ahead, Concord Season 1: The Tempest, launches in October–it adds a new character, new map, new variants, and additional cosmetics and rewards. It also introduces a new season of weekly cinematic vignettes that will further flesh out the narrative. Season 2 is scheduled for January, with Season 3 expected in April.
