Sony president comments on Concorde failure

Key things

Sony is still analyzing the Concorde failure.
The company believes the game didn't have enough “gates” to ensure it lives up to player expectations.
Sony's organizational structure may have contributed to Concord's failure, according to company president Hiroki Totoki.

PlayStation is still in the process of analyzing the crash Concordaccording to Sony president Hiroki Totoki. A company official said the same in a recent Q&A session where he also speculated about some of the reasons Concord it ended the way it did.

The first and last game from Firewalk Studios, a subsidiary of Sony, was released on August 23. It was terminated just two weeks later. Concord thus becoming what is believed to be the costliest failure in Sony's live service efforts to date.

Reaction to the shutdown of former GTA developer Concord studio

Former GTA Dev Comments on Shutting Down Concord Studio

A former Rockstar Games developer who worked on several GTA games joins Sony with his vision, closing the studio behind Concorde.

Now that Concord is confirmed not to be returning in any way shape or form, Sony president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki reflected on the short-lived game during a question-and-answer session following the company's latest earnings report. Among other things, the executive said that Sony remains “in the process of learning” what went wrong with the heroic shooter Firewalk. Totoki offered several theories about this, such as noting that any new IP carries inherent risk and is far from a sure bet.

Concord didn't have enough 'Gates', Sony president says

The head of Sony also commented on this Concord it did not have enough “gateways” in the form of “user testing” and other forms of evaluation. The timing of these checks was another potential problem he identified in retrospect. “We should have done those gates a lot sooner than we did,” he explained. Instead, Sony seemingly didn't realize the game could be a huge flop until the year Concord the open beta failed to generate any significant interest a month before the hero's launch.

Sony's organizational structure probably didn't do Concord any favors

Totoki also acknowledged that Sony's business structure may have contributed to the failure Concord. Specifically, he described Sony as a “siloed organization”, suggesting that its individual departments are currently relatively isolated from each other, and admitted that this may have caused a disconnect between them. Concordcase.

Although Concord ended up being one of the most significant failures in Sony's history, it remains to be seen whether its fate will prompt the gaming giant to rethink its overall foray into live services. After all, the only other live service game released by Sony in 2024 Helldivers 2it ended up being a massive hit; it sold over 12 million copies in its first three months on the market, making it the fastest PlayStation game to reach that number. As of late 2024, Sony still has several titles with live services, including Haven Studios Fairgames and Bungie's Marathon. The latter is currently believed to be targeted for launch in the second half of 2025, while Fairgames it's still without a tentative release window.

Assemble your crew of Freegunner space outlaws and team up online with friends for thrilling 5v5 PVP modes across the galaxy in Concord.

Concord is a new team-based first-person shooter for PS5® and PC*. Choose your personal roster of Freegunners from the Northstar Crew – a group of outlaws and adventurers working as guns for hire.

BUILD YOUR CREW
From powerful mystics to skilled gunslingers and useful healers, each Freegunner brings their own unique skills, personality and abilities to suit a wide variety of playstyles.

Create your own teams of Freegunners using the Crew Builder to bring an arsenal of different role types to the match, or focus on your favorite characters to master their game and unlock unique modifiers, cosmetics, background lore and more – you decide when you play your game. characters and how you affect the match.

PLAY. PROGRESS. ADAPT.
Earn and unlock a wide variety of character customization items and learn more about the characters, worlds and factions in the Concord galaxy with the Galactic Guide.

You'll also be able to progress towards and unlock Freegunner Variants – versions of each of the 16 Freegunners with combat modifiers added to their base abilities. As you learn and master the characters, combat features allow you to tailor each character to your playstyle.

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