Firewalk Studios' hero shooter Concord is shutting down at the end of this week. It was released on PlayStation 5 and PC less than two weeks ago on August 23rd.
In a post on PlayStation Blog, game director Ryan Ellis confirmed that the servers will be taken offline beginning September 6, 2024. In the meantime, sales have been ceased immediately.
Anyone who purchased th game will receive a full refund. For those who purchased the game from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method. Both Steam and Epic Games Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days. Those who directly purchased a physical copy at a retailer location outside of PlayStation will need to refer to the retailer's refund process.
At this point, it's unclear what will happen to Concord. Ellis stated that they will "explore options" for the game, "including those that will better reach our players."
The most widely speculated move would be a shift to a free-to-play business model as many competing hero shooters do. But such a move would likely take time and its unclear how much more money Sony is willing to invest in Concord.
Released on August 23rd, it's estimated that Concord sold just 25,000 copies in total. Though this is just an estimate, analysts have tracked the game's low player count, which peaked under 700 on Steam and was the 147th most-played game on PlayStation during its launch week.
Steam offers more insight into the game's struggles. As of this writing, there are just 49 people playing right now with a peak of 132 in the last 24 hours. The all-time peak from 11 days ago was 697.
Concord received mixed reviews from critics. It has an average score of 62/100 on Metacritic, based on 40 critic reviews. Concord was deemed as a "good" multiplayer hero shooter with solid fundamentals, but it was lacking in certain areas such as character progression, storytelling, and unique personality. The general consensus is that Concord was nothing special in a market saturated with similar competition.
The user score paints a much more dismal picture as it is overwhelmingly disliked. With 776 user ratings, it sits at just a 1.8. Of course, user reviews can be a bit extreme, especially as Concord was quickly labeled as "woke." And we all know what that label can do to a certain crowd of gamers.