It's only been a few weeks since the ill-fated hero shooter Concord went offline, yet the more we find out about this doomed game, the more one has to wonder what Sony was thinking when they purchased Firewalk Studios in 2023. Concord famously launched with a $40 price tag and a nonexistent player base, both of which seemed to seal it's fate rather rapidly.
The overabundance of free to play alternatives, as well as the hideous character designs and inclusion of nonsense like pronouns, didn't help this title either. While many people speculated that Sony would lose around $200M by choosing to pull this game offline and refund anyone who purchased it, it has now been revealed that Concord cost a whopping $400M, and that doesn't include what they paid to acquire Firewalk.
I spoke extensively with someone who worked on Concord, and it's so much worse than you think.
— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024
It was internally referred to as "The Future of PlayStation" with Star Wars-like potential, and a dev culture of "toxic positivity" halted any negative feedback.
Making it cost $400m. pic.twitter.com/F5O0oy4gaQ
Colin Moriarty, aka @longislandviper, revealed that a credible insider spoke to him regarding the chaos that unfolded behind the scenes. This insider said that the codename for Concord was actually "Chaos," which in hindsight is either incredible irony or a potential cry for help from the development team. The insider would then go on to claim that Concord was protected by "toxic positivity" within the team at Firewalk, so much so that nobody was able to speak out regarding their potential concerns regarding anything that might not bode well for this game.
Do you know how many cheeseburgers I could buy with 400 million dollars?
— Dreadroberts (@SicklyTheNinJa) September 20, 2024
114,285,714.@PlayConcord screwed us all out of 114,285,714 cheeseburgers. We all went hungry so that @Sony and @FirewalkStudios could shove propaganda down our throats for two weeks before dying.… pic.twitter.com/KlE5VVKawK
Most shocking was that the game had already spent it's budget of $200M by 2023 before Sony even purchased Firewalk Studios, and Concord was allegedly in such bad shape that Sony felt the urgent need to spend another $200M just to make the game marketable. Within Sony and Firewalk, there was a belief that Concord could be not only a Sony tentpole, but could have the same cultural impact as franchises such as Star Wars.
We all know now that this was pure delusion on the part of Sony and the team at Firewalk, many of whom have been exposed as deranged activists and agenda pushers. While some people have speculated that Sony would relaunch Concord as a free to play title, the recent departure of Concord's Director would seem to indicate that the team at Firewalk's days are numbered.