Sony has made an announcement regarding its new PlayStation 5 shooter game “Concord,” which was released on August 23. The game will be taken offline just two weeks later, and refunds will be offered to all players who purchased it.
Concord, a team-based hero shooter similar to Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch, puts teams of five against each other in intense combat arenas. However, it turned out to be one of the year’s most high-profile launch failures with only a few hundred players on Steam and fewer than 25,000 copies sold, as reported by GameDiscoverCo Analyst.
In a statement on the PlayStation blog, Sony expressed gratitude towards Concorde fans and acknowledged the mixed feedback received. As a result, the decision was made to explore options, including taking the game offline from September 6, 2024, and halting sales while providing full refunds to players who bought the game on PS5 or PC.
Warner Bros. also faced a similar situation with their game Suicide Squad: Defeat the Justice League, which failed to meet player expectations. On the other hand, the squad shooter Helldivers II has been a huge success for Sony since its release, boasting over 12 million copies sold in the first three months.
It’s uncommon for a struggling multiplayer game like Concord to be pulled off shelves so quickly, as failed games like Evolve, Lawbreakers, and Paragon typically lasted around a year. The future of Concord remains uncertain, with no indication in the statement of whether the game will be permanently canceled or potentially resurrected at a later date.
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Concord is a game that has been in development for around 8 years. Sony acquired the developer Firewalk Studios in 2023, along with other live service game developers, as part of their strategy to focus on long-tail multiplayer games for the PlayStation 5 platform.
Source: www.theguardian.com
