380°

Sony's Concord Is Performing Worse Than High-Profile Flops

Concord is apparently a sales flop on the PS5, PC. Such is the state of Sony's first-party multiplayer shooter that it's beating other flops.

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playstationlifestyle.net
Obscure_Observer242d ago (Edited 242d ago )

"Concord is apparently a sales flop on the PS5 and PC. Such is the state of Sony’s first-party multiplayer shooter that it’s apparently outperforming (in reverse order, that is) other high-profile flops like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Redfall, although it’s probably worth mentioning that Redfall benefitted from a Game Pass launch."

Jesus! Sony sent this studio straight to the death row with their GaaS strategy.

BlackTar187242d ago

They had their own part in that as well creating a very weak game.

Obscure_Observer242d ago

They did what they were told. Just like Naughty Dog.

Cacabunga242d ago

Gaas model is not what hardcore gamers want, got it Sony?

GhostScholar241d ago

I agree with you. It’s similar to everyone blaming Xbox for how bad redfall was. That game is deep in development when Xbox purchased them. Now they could have for sure held off the release to fix it but they didn’t.

BlackTar187242d ago (Edited 242d ago )

Gaas or not the game is uninspired and the design in almost ints entirety is weak.

So your stance is this is all Sonys fault and not any of the developers? Interesting but expected.

Cacabunga242d ago

I wish killzone 3 multiplayer was still on

BlackTar187242d ago

I like kz2 the best. I know some didn’t like the weighted feel but i thought it worked well.

SonyStyled242d ago

I sometimes play kz2 online to this day on the revived servers

Cacabunga241d ago

kz2 is better yes, but just for move controller i would choose kz3

CobraKai241d ago

It’s like the devs said, “Let’s design characters people do not want to play as”

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Crows90242d ago

Sony gamers want better. Too bad not all platform fans do the same and vote with their wallets.

Obscure_Observer242d ago

"Sony gamers want better. Too bad not all platform fans do the same and vote with their wallets."

I hope they´re happy with the message they sent to Sony to kill that studio in its early years at Playstation Studios.

"Want better"? I´m not sure what to make of it. I mean, at the same time they´re celebrating the boycott while killing Firesprite´s future, they´re also empowering Microsoft´s COD as the most pre ordered game at Playstation Store right now; so, I don´t know... It just feels melancholic and wrong, imo.

That´s how they´re "voting with their wallets" at the moment. Does it sounds good or even fair to you?

No. To me, it doesn´t.

Omegasyde242d ago

@Obscure

Thing is Sony has a lot of IP’s under its belt.

I appreciate when a new IP does come out but Firewalk Studio should have kept formula and reskinned using an established Sony IP especially being that this is the studios first game.

Imagine if this was set had a Killzone “Hero” shooter or even Resistance vibe.

darthv72242d ago

I just hope they dont cancel the controller. Still waiting for my shipment confirmation. It was supposed to have been shipped last week to be delivered on the 23rd... nothing yet.

Outside_ofthe_Box242d ago

You finally have something to be happy about, eh?

Obscure_Observer242d ago

"You finally have something to be happy about, eh?"

I´ll be dammed by God the day I feel any sort of satisfaction or enjoyment by ANY good and legit gaming studio getting killed before my eyes.

So you can GTFO with your weirdo fanboy bs.

Outside_ofthe_Box241d ago

"So you can GTFO with your weirdo fanboy bs."

The irony is crazy here.

But I saw you do a backflip when you saw the player count though?

__y2jb242d ago

A very (VERY) rare case of obscure being bang in the money.

Profchaos241d ago (Edited 241d ago )

Yeah I have to agree I think Sony will have the studio support it for three season as they publicly stated they would at which point it will be quietly shuttered after a last ditch f2p overhaul fails to drum up any interest.

The studio really shouldn't be in gaming to begin with look at the cinematics for the game it's clear their passion lies in animation it makes the game feel tacked onto the cinematics like a Sega cd game

sushimama241d ago

As a Playstation fan, I'm glad this game flopped now. After I read some reviews I can see a lot clearly now. Now Sony will learn the hard way. This is the best possible news for the future imo. This game needed to flop for so many reasons. DEI bland characters and story being one of them that makes me gag. Also they will be wary of Live service a bit more now. Live service can be really great, but you need to be careful and I think this is a wakeup call. I'm now glad the game is going down the tubes. Lock it up and throw away the key.

cthulhucultist241d ago

Jesus man, you rushed to comment on this just to take a jab at Sony. Stop being such a fanboy and enjoy the so many other good games released instead of trying to hard to find a low score Sony game

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 241d ago
Lightning77242d ago

The medias slow review roll out for this
game is interesting. When Redfall released, first thing in the morning the media were not shy on telling everyone how bad the game was. Parading around the bad scores and rightfully so so it's a bad game. Hell even some outlets like Forbes and the Guardian defend Concord, while IGN is taking their sweet time with their review for Concord. AA of right now, Not one outlet attempt to blame Sony like they blamed MS for the game being bad. Last week it was 5 reviews for Concord maybe like 7 or 8 now compared to like what 50 reviews for Redfall that week?

The media has to treat each game from each camp the same.

Obscure_Observer242d ago

"AA of right now, Not one outlet attempt to blame Sony like they blamed MS for the game being bad. Last week it was 5 reviews for Concord maybe like 7 or 8 now compared to like what 50 reviews for Redfall that week?"

They don´t have the balls to call them out.

BlackTar187242d ago

Was concord anywhere close to the anticipation and build up over years of redfall?

Concord came out of nowhere and was pretty low on the pole from the first first teaser.

StoneTitan242d ago

Because the game is not bad. Ots just that not a lot of people want it

derek242d ago (Edited 242d ago )

@Lightning77 blame Sony for what? Is there something wrong with Concord on a technical level like with Redfall. By all accounts from those who have played and or are currently playing it is that the game runs great. The fact that it has little to no appeal on steam or elsewhere appears to be the verdict that gamers don't want to buy this game. Nobody can know that really until it's released/shown off and the public has a chance to make their decision
which they now have. What is Sony fault in this, that they even tried? Lol.

Obscure_Observer242d ago

"What is Sony fault in this, that they even tried? Lol."

Sony knows the Playstation playerbase all too well to know by now exactly what they want.

I´m Pretty sure that the first cinematic trailer gave a lot of people some Guardians of the Galaxy vibes, so they could at very least allowed the studio to create a campaign single player mode to go along with the multiplayer.

But since Sony couldn´t be bothered, Concord´s flop is on them. Not the developers.

Crows90242d ago

@obscure

Stop pretending to be an advocate for the Sony fan base. People want quality games on the Sony side. Gaas is rarely quality but can sometimes hit a stride. There is just no interest for concord.

Lightning77242d ago

Because Sony canceled potential L'S hits such as Twisted Metal, Factions 2, Spider-Man Multi Verse. They bought Fire Walk ahead of time thinking this was gonna be a hit. Bungie screwed up with Destiny now Marathon is in developmental hell Sony's eye for Sp games will forever be unmatched but they need deep education on what makes a good LS game.

MS ignored Redfall and did nothing about it rough launch so it's their fault by technicality. Sony Green lit this game and cancelled potential projects.

Each company need to be held accountable not this one side selective journalism that's going on here.

derek242d ago

@Obscure, the "playstation fanbase" wants all types of games, including gaas games, given the money spent on them annually. Playstation has stated why they're investing in these types of games because they hadn't done so previously, and they want to diversify their portfolio. You can fault them for apparently not picking a winner in Concord, but the investment makes complete sense based on where gamers spend their money in the market.

derek242d ago

@Lightning, you have no idea how far those games,progressed or the viability of them long term no point in speculating. Part of investing for the first time is learning what works and what doesn't which Sony stated when announcing this gaas initiative. The question was how is Sony not being held to account here.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 242d ago
rippermcrip242d ago

A multiplayer only game can't necessarily be fully reviewed without a full population of players. A game like Redfall can.

Crows90242d ago

Well there was much more attention and love for arkane than for whoever did this game. Let's not compare these 2 studio games and their responses.

Not to mention redfall was just a broken mess. With this game people just don't want gaas and unlike with helldiver's it did not deliver in any category.

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ChasterMies241d ago

A lot of the media were ready to kill Concord before it released. The talk was about Sony taking away resources from its great single player games in order to fund games as a service boondoggles. Before Redfall’s release, the media talked about how Redfall would be the beginning of a continuous rollout of AAA Xbox exclusives. So when Redfall released, the quality of the game was shocking. When Concord released, the quality of the game didn’t matter.

EternalTitan241d ago

You wont want to lose your job for a negative score do you?

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+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 240d ago
-Foxtrot242d ago

It saddens me because they are promoting this more than Astrobot still

Take the f***** loss and promote the shit out of Astrobot while you have time.

VersusDMC242d ago (Edited 242d ago )

All i see on YouTube is playstation ads for NBA2k so I'm pretty sure they have dropped Concord advertising. It's not even displayed on the front page of the PSN store right now.

We should see some Astro Bot ads next week as it comes out next friday.

JEECE242d ago

This does seem like it is potentially going to have historically bad sales for a Sony published game. If you look at the Steam concurrent numbers and assume that the PS5 numbers are similar (or even if you give the game the benefit of the doubt and assume it is doing 3-4 times better on PS5, which there is no basis to assume), it's fair to wonder if this game has cracked 30,000 in worldwide sales.

Given that Helldivers 2 is the second best selling game of the year in the US and most Sony single player games are expected to sell over ten million units now (lol certain people on here have bashed Spiderman 2 for "only" selling 11 million in seven months), Concord could end up being an almost inconceivable failure. I mean, even things like Anthem and Avengers that ended up as substantial failures and financial losses at least at some high initial sales to help recoup some of the costs of the game. Concord won't even have that.

Omegasyde242d ago

I wonder if Fairgame$ will pivot to free to play or even this game.

If sales are this bad, this game should go free to play asap and just give the people whom purchased in game credits for unlocks

jznrpg241d ago

I thought Concord looked better than Fairgame but I don’t play these games so maybe I’m wrong.

Chocoburger242d ago

I remember when you told me that this game would be more profitable than a hypothetical Ape Escape 4. 🤔

JEECE242d ago

"While I agree that Concord looks like the game you would get if you told an AI to "make a game like Overwatch with fake Marvel characters," the idea that Ape Escape 4 would do well at this point is laughable (as much as I wish it wasn't). With a few notable exceptions (i.e. GTA, Gran Turismo, the Sony-published Crash games), people grossly overestimate how popular a lot of the nostalgic games from the PS1 and PS2 era actually were. Unless they could keep it at a low budget where they could make their money back selling a million copies at $40 a pop, it would be a waste of resources. That said, at least they wouldn't lose as much money as they probably will on Concord."

That's a direct quote of what I said. So either you were lying and thought I wouldn't call you out, or you badly misread my comment. I have my guess as to which it was.

-Foxtrot241d ago

The funny thing is Helldivers 2 being a success for them is now outweighed by this being a massive failure for them

All that money and profits Helldivers 2 has given them since launch will now have to be used to fix the burning hole in their pockets left behind by Concord.

It will feel like they've never gained truly anything.

Hedstrom242d ago

Well the studio was bought by Playstation in 2023. But Concord had been in development since 2018. You must wonder what the person who were responsible for buying up the studio saw in Concord.

Lightning77242d ago

Ryan thought it looked good I guess. We'll be feeling Ryan's regime for a few more years I think.

-Foxtrot241d ago

Another reason why I think Jim Ryan bailed

Funny he's not here to answer for all this live service shit

Bungie, Factions II, Twisted Metal, Spiderman, cutting down GaaS titles from 12 to 6...Fairgame$ and Marathon are next.

Hedstrom241d ago

The only positive thing i guess is that they didnt put one of their original studio on developing it. But its a small comfort.

outsider1624241d ago

Even the name itself "CONCORD" is wierd. Like doesn't sound like a game.

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330°

PS5 Mega-Flop Concord Is Reaching Absurdly High Prices on eBay

World's most expensive coaster

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pushsquare.com
BISHOP-BRASIL35d ago

Pretty standard for pulled off products, collectors love useless but very limited things.

TheEroica34d ago (Edited 34d ago )

This reminds me of when people spend big on "poo-art"...

35d ago Replies(1)
goken35d ago

Worlds most expensive coaster 🤣

badz14934d ago

what's so different between this and those useless NES cartridges or even supposedly "rare" pokemon cards? they are like NFT, just physical. Concord is an actual flop that has been pulled from stores, while Nintendo artificially limited their supply for artificial scarcity.

darthv7235d ago

ehh... I'll stick with the controller. I got enough coasters, they are called xbox games (snickers)

35d ago Replies(2)
Kurt Russell35d ago

Not the biggest coaster collection from xbox this gen :P

TheEroica34d ago (Edited 34d ago )

Concord is the biggest flop of all time... Sony could've saved 5 years by standing over the toilet and flushing 400 million. Remember, Concord is so bad that you cannot even play it anymore. It's vapor. You can't even have a retro review on it or pretend like "maybe there are a few people at home enjoying it". Lol, it was so so bad that it's been obliterated along with piles and piles of money.

The good news is all that failure leads to more pc ports of sonys better games. Sony is a good 3rd party publisher. I'll give them that!

35d ago Replies(1)
Richhard135d ago

Good, I have two sealed copies,

GotGame81834d ago

You can buy a sealed copy for $59 on eBay.

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280°

Sony's Recent Live Service Game Cancellations Is Reportedly Tied To Failure Of Concord

Sony Interactive Entertainment's recent cancellation of live service game projects is tied to the failure of Concord, based on a new report.

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twistedvoxel.com
-Foxtrot98d ago

Good. Let it be a lesson.

I’m super curious about how they are going to go about Fairgame$. It’s a live service title which didn’t get a good reception with the announcement and it’s being made by a brand new studio they decided to buy straight away because of the live service title they were making. It’s super similar to Concord and Firewalk Studios.

Will they cancel it this far into development or release it with the high chance of it being another disappointment and making Sony the laughing stock.

JEECE98d ago

It feels like that one is far enough along that they are going to go ahead and just push it out.

RaidenBlack98d ago (Edited 98d ago )

The Horizon live-service game is on the ... err horizon as well it seems, don't think that's getting cancelled.
Honestly if one modern Sony live-service game that I wish wasn't cancelled, that'd be the "Spider-Man: The Great Web". The leaked trailer looked cool and imho, it had potential. The timing was just not on its side.
With Avengers and Gotham Knights fumbling and Suicide Squad also not garnering much positivity at the time, Sony pulled the plug.
And 2 other I can also consider as well would be Factions 2.0 and Twisted Metal. Any form of a new Twisted Metal game is still fine for me than nothing.
Hope after all this, Marathin delivers. Oh, it better, especially after they changed such an amazing IP's genre.
I am really curious to see what they can pull-off.

PapaBop97d ago (Edited 97d ago )

Marathon is Sony's only real hope I think on the live service front, any live service game released before then will be going out to Freddie Mercury singing "another one bites the dust". They have to hope Bungie have some magic left in them and deliver a product worthy of the name. Live service games and Sony fans are like square pegs in a round hole. They need to really knock it out of the park to justify them and remove the negative stigma surrounding live service games.

CrimsonWing6998d ago

Didn’t they literally announce recently that they’re committed to GaaS?

isarai98d ago

I really don't know how seriously I would take that Herman has always just come off as a yes man. But I say I don't know because I really don't know it could be one way or the other

neutralgamer199298d ago

Sony's decision to cancel two more live-service games, one from Bluepoint Games and another from Bend Studio—neither of which have significant experience in live-service development—has raised serious concerns among fans. Many of us had been eagerly awaiting announcements about these studios' projects, believing they were nearing completion after years of development.

Now, it appears several first-party studios are being forced to start over, highlighting what feels like a pattern of mismanagement this generation. Sony's strategy seems to be floundering, leaving its first-party portfolio with a string of missteps.

This situation is eerily reminiscent of the "arrogant Sony" era leading up to the PS3's troubled launch. Unfortunately, unlike that time, there’s no strong competition from Xbox to compel Sony to course-correct and refocus on what made them successful in the first place.

97d ago
FinalFantasyFanatic97d ago

Idk, I don't feel like they've learnt their lesson, in the case of Fairgame$, I suspect they'd release it if it's too far along to back out, at least try and make some money on it, if that's possible.

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gold_drake98d ago

i still find it ridiculous that they had soo many, 12, in the pipeline. if they had like 3, sure, but 12 is a huge number for potential failure.

Alos8898d ago

They were throwing stuff against the wall and praying something stuck... considering how poorly thought out the whole thing was they should be grateful they even got one win with Helldivers.

PapaBop97d ago

How the hell would that even work? Were they going to create 12 completely different games to try and cater to different audiences? Or would they expect some gamers to be juggling multiple ones and on top of whatever third party ones get created? I really hope someone high up at Sony has pressed the big red panic button because they're starting to look MS levels of incompetent.

attilayavuzer97d ago

Honestly I think the strategy was to have one of them be a huge success (billions in revenue) and have that pay for all the other games and devs they'd shut down from the failures. One Fortnite-level success would double the brand's profit, so it makes sense why they'd take a flier on it, even if the odds were terrible and in practice has so far been about worst case scenario.

FinalFantasyFanatic97d ago

I think they expected multiple failures, they only needed a few to succeed to rake in the big bucks. But there are already a lot of these games out there to the point of saturation, and trying to pull people away from other, popular GaaS games was going to be a big challenge.

MetroidFREAK2198d ago (Edited 98d ago )

They need to wake up. A God of War live service game... what a joke

Relientk7798d ago

A God of War live service game doesn't even make sense no matter how you spin it. What a dumb idea.

bartfart98d ago

Yeah anyone remember gow: ascension multiplayer? Me neither

raWfodog98d ago

I’m a huge God of War fan and this had me scratching my head like ‘huh?’ Stop trying to add GaaS to every IP. It just doesn’t work that way.

Goodguy0198d ago

Focus on quality singleplayer like you had with the ps4 and 3 that made you so well loved. 3rd party will do all the live servicing.

RaidenBlack98d ago (Edited 98d ago )

You need some multiplayer titles as well ... not unlike olden days ... but just not so many of 'em that you lose the quality over quantity.
And plus, experimental smaller projects to keep things interesting.

97d ago
SonyStyled97d ago

They closed all of their ‘small’ game studios though for the GAAS focus. They shot themselves in the foot. PixelOpus, Japan, London (Psygnosis) closed

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320°

Most Disappointing Game of 2024

VGChartz's Mark Nielsen: "In a year that was to a large extent carried by the game developers of Japan (and to some extent China), western games can rejoice that there was at least one category they managed to dominate: that of Most Disappointing. Sometimes disappointment comes from high expectations met with something middling, other times it comes from middling expectations met with something terrible. This year managed to deliver a bit of both, so either way there was enough disappointment to go around."

Read Full Story >>
vgchartz.com
thorstein98d ago (Edited 98d ago )

Why not mention the 19,000 Steam games of which 80% weren't good enough to merit "success" on the platform?

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RaidenBlack98d ago

You gotta be effing kidding me with that logic.

coolbeans98d ago

Because the very *definition* of disappointment requires one has some kind of expectation for it. Concord was hoping to find its own niche in the crowded 'hero shooter' market, with ~8 years of development, $100 million+ funding, and marketable talent behind it, and went belly up in 2 lousy weeks. That's historical for a live-service game.

thorstein98d ago

It's become a drinking game at this point. Disappointing games? It's the same games in every article with a similar title. Does no one have an original thought anymore?

RaidenBlack98d ago

@thorstein
**It's the same games in every article with a similar title.**
Because it's the same year? The games that got launched is a constant fact for everyone. And if the game was universally disappointing, then obviously everyone would echo the same thing.
Do you want for originality some writer would write up that instead of Concord and Outlaws, Silent Hills 2 was the most disappointing game, right? Coz, that'd be considered a click-bait article then.
And emphasis on the word "disappointing" games, not general bad games.

LordoftheCritics98d ago

Veilguard was easily the most disappointing game of the year.
Highest expectation with Highest disappointment

Concord was just the biggest failure.
In fact it was not very disappointing.
Almost as expected.

DivineHand12597d ago

@LordoftheCritics I disagree about Vailguard being the most disappointing game of the year. Going into the launch of that game, 90% of the comments I was seeing from this community were negative. Many also wanted the game to fail.

In my opinion, for a game to be disappointing, it would mean the game was highly anticipated for success going into the launch of the game only to bomb in the reviews and fail commercially.

I would say Hellblade 2 claims this title. I haven't played any of the games in the series as yet, however, the hate that game received was on another level. I am not sure if it was fanboys that felt threatened by it being the best-looking console game on the market or if the criticisms about it being a boring game were valid. I haven't played these walking games before so put it off since it doesn't seem to be my cup of tea.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 97d ago
anast97d ago

Those 19,000 games have 80%. Dragon age is sitting at 70%, Star wars is at 75% and falling, Lego Horizon adventures is at 56%, Skull and Bones 65% and Concord was DOA. This would mean these games didn't even crack the top 19,000.

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