Sony has finally decided to shut down the Firewalk Studios after Concord failed to perform in the gaming market.
When you are the top gaming console manufacturer in the world, it is easy to overextend and overestimate your influence. But sometimes, things don't pan out so well. This was the case with Concord, PlayStation's title that marked its foray into live service gaming.
Sony Shuts Down Firewalk Studios
On Tuesday, PlayStation co-CEO Herman Hulst announced that they would be shutting down Firewalk Studios. This news comes just a little less than two years after Sony acquired the developer intending to venture into live service gaming.
We won't mince our words. Concord, Firewalk Studios' first title, was an epic failure. It was taken offline within weeks of its launch because no one wanted to play it.
Hulst managed to sugarcoat this reality in the official press release, "Certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline." He continued, "We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options. After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication."
A few ex-Bungie developers banded together in 2018 to form Firewalk Studios. At the time, they were working on a new multiplayer shooter linked to a new startup gaming studio called Probably Monsters. This latter studio was also formed by the ex-CEO of Bungie, Harold Ryan.
Then, in April 2023, Sony jumped on the bandwagon of Concord, which was already in development for years by that time. The multinational company thought this would be a great addition to their portfolio of planned live service games.
Firewalk is signing off one last time.
— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024
Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
- Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was...
Concord's failure to perform
Some information has come to the fore from two sources that were not authorized to speak publicly about the Firewalk Studios deal with Sony. Apparently, they spent $200 million only in the initial development of Concord. But surprisingly, this amount was enough neither to cover the entire development of the title nor to purchase its IP rights or Firewalk Studios itself, something that Sony did only last year.
Well, Sony must have been blind because the initial trailers had an overwhelmingly negative reception by the community. Moreover, the open betas held over the summer did not improve this image by any palpable measure.
Not to be too harsh on Sony, Concord received average reviews when it launched fully. But critics were struggling to understand by anyone would favor a new, paid title in a field where multiple established shooters stood that were, moreover, free-to-play.
Some analysts calculated the initial sales of Concord to sit at around 25,000 copies in the first week. This number did not go up much and within a month, Sony had decided to take the title offline.
Reportedly, the game director, Ryan Ellis also stepped down from his position of management while parallelly, Sony was assessing the future of the Concord. The rest of the folks at Firewalk Studios were guessing whether they would go to work on Sony's other projects or become unemployed as the leadership clamped down on the gaming studio.
Now, a after Hulst's press release regarding the closing of Firewalk Studios, he announced that Neon Koi, a studio acquired by Sony in the last few years, would meet the same fate. The mobile multiplayer shooter that was in the pipeline of this studio would be canceled too.