400°

Games Media Personnel Debunk Claims of Concord's $400 Million Budget

The rumor of Concord's budget was at $400M has been debunked by games media personnel, as the game didn't even get above-the-line marketing.

_SilverHawk_229d ago (Edited 229d ago )

People will continue to make up absurd things about concord just like i predicted. I didn't believe that game costs anywhere close to half a billion dollars but people will continue to pile on because they were truly hurt by the production of this game that I thought was a good game. The developers had the audacity to make a good game semi-similar to other games with character models not seen before with gender pronouns.

228d ago Replies(2)
Michiel1989228d ago

the game gave us no reason to play Concord instead of Overwatch or Valorant but then you combine it with awful character design and nonsene agendapushing, then my friend you get a dumpsterfire. It was 8 years in development, who thought it was a good idea to hold a beta 1 month before release? It wasn't a beta, it was a failed attempt at marketing, cause fuck all can get changed in that time.

Einhander1972228d ago

The studio was formed in 2018...

Michiel1989228d ago

overwatch released in 2016, they had the blueprint.

Einhander1972228d ago

The game couldn't have possibly been in development for 8 years when the studio didn't even exist for 8 years.

The game failed, that is a fact, but a lot of what is being said about it is clearly untrue.

Michiel1989228d ago

it says 8 years everywhere. It could have been in preproduction somewhere and later created a new studio for it, wouldn't have been the first time and won't be the last. I think Sony even said it themselves

Einhander1972228d ago

I don't care what it says everywhere, that is how the internet is. Just because a lot of people say something doesn't make it true.

"I read it on the internet it must be true" LoL

Michiel1989228d ago

ok 6 years then, still abysmal development if this is all they could come up with. If i believed everyting said I would have said it would have cost them 400m. 2 levels and 2.5 characters per year for a 150+ man team. That screams massive problems and a money pit.

Einhander1972228d ago (Edited 228d ago )

I mean, you are determined to say the longest possible amount of time you can get away with... No matter how unrealistic that may be...

Chevalier228d ago

Wait so let me get this straight. The Last of Us 2 apparently cost about $220 million to make and had 2000+ people working on it.

But you think that Concord which topped out at 150 employees cost $400 million to make?! Please explain the logic here.

DodoDojo228d ago

@Einhander

If it wasn't in development for 8 years, why do the developers say it was?

https://x.com/sharkeatsman/...

228d ago
thorstein228d ago

Do you believe a developer founded in 2018 was working on a game in 2016?

If not, do you believe the people that reported that may have lied about other things or that a studio with no games behind it was able to amass half a billion dollars to make this game on their own? And who would pay them to do this? Probably Monsters Inc. who owned Firewalk and owns other studios was founded in 2016 with 250 million.

Sony bought Firewalk in April 2023.

DodoDojo228d ago

@Thorstein
The 8 years development time claim came from the developers themselves. Firewalk Studios Lead Gameplay Designer Claude Jerome and Lead Character Designer Jon Weisnewski went on the official PlayStation Blog and said they've been working on it for 10 years but it only had 8 years of actual development.

+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 228d ago
thorstein228d ago

Reminds me of when users on here claimed that 193 - 73 = 180.

babadivad228d ago

This article said little and less. On top of that, it didn't debunk anything.

Chevalier228d ago

"The Acolyte cost 180 million dollars"

Yeah, but, Star Wars shows have hundreds more staff. But my point is that TLOU 2 had over 2000 people work on it and cost $220 million. But you want me to believe a game that had 150 people making it cost more than double that with 1/10 of the staff.

Notellin228d ago

Tell us how much it cost to acquire Firewalk and also to publish the game if you know so much. Your experience as a Wal-Mart cashier should come in handy for your analysis.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 227d ago
isarai229d ago

Thought so, that was an absurd cost for ANY game let alone a MP only game

excaliburps228d ago

Yep, but you had people believing that crap. I mean, websites ran that. I don't think they believed it themselves, but the urge of Concord, bait and traffic seemed too good to pass up.

Mr_cheese228d ago

People believed it because they wanted to. It was an extreme figure which made sony and concord look even worse than before.

Chevalier228d ago (Edited 228d ago )

This is how absurd that number is. The Last of Us 2 cost $220 million to make and had 2100+ people work on the game.

But this media and certain people here think that Concord which topped out at 150 people working on the game cost $400 million to make.

Grand Theft Auto 5 apparently cost $265 million to make too which at the time was the most expensive entertainment product ever made even considering other media like movies.

babadivad228d ago

Mismanagement causes budgets to balloon. The Acolyte cost 180 million dollars but the end product doesn't reflect a budget that large. Especially for only 8 roughly half hour episodes.

It's the unseen cost of incompetence.

Notellin228d ago

Concord did not have only 150 people work on it. Sony brought in multiple support studios over the last 18 months which is mentioned all over the place. The credits are 3 hours long and mention significantly more names than 150.

Every game has consultants, voice actors, etc.

Ignoring the facts doesn't make you correct it makes you ignorant.

229d ago Replies(3)
purple101228d ago

Films like Avatar cost 300 million

This is a game with 12 small levels and 16 characters
No way their small cut scenes added 300 mill to the price .

Michiel1989228d ago

the question should be how did they manage to only make that in 8 years, that already shows there are massive problems there, which often lead to loads of money lost. We will never know the number but I wouldn't be surprised if its pretty far over 200m.

purple101228d ago

Yes I suppose if they brought the property offices, all the tech and any debt owed, it could rack up! Got to pay those bonuses we keep hearing about too ! Haha

Notellin228d ago

What a terrible comparison.

An extremely experienced film maker and studio creates a movie against a brand new video game studio making their first game.

Completely useless comment.

Chocoburger228d ago ShowReplies(2)
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330°

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

World's most expensive coaster

Read Full Story >>
pushsquare.com
BISHOP-BRASIL48d ago

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

TheEroica47d ago (Edited 47d ago )

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

48d ago Replies(1)
goken48d ago

Worlds most expensive coaster 🤣

badz14948d 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.

darthv7248d ago

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

48d ago Replies(2)
Kurt Russell48d ago

Not the biggest coaster collection from xbox this gen :P

TheEroica47d ago (Edited 47d 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!

48d ago Replies(1)
Richhard148d ago

Good, I have two sealed copies,

GotGame81847d 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
-Foxtrot111d 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.

JEECE111d ago

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

RaidenBlack111d ago (Edited 111d 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.

PapaBop111d ago (Edited 111d 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.

CrimsonWing69111d ago

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

isarai111d 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

neutralgamer1992111d 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.

111d ago
FinalFantasyFanatic110d 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.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 110d ago
gold_drake111d 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.

Alos88111d 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.

PapaBop111d 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.

attilayavuzer111d 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.

FinalFantasyFanatic110d 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.

MetroidFREAK21111d ago (Edited 111d ago )

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

Relientk77111d ago

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

bartfart111d ago

Yeah anyone remember gow: ascension multiplayer? Me neither

raWfodog111d 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.

Goodguy01111d 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.

RaidenBlack111d ago (Edited 111d 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.

111d ago
SonyStyled110d 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
thorstein111d ago (Edited 111d ago )

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

111d ago
111d ago Replies(2)
RaidenBlack111d ago

You gotta be effing kidding me with that logic.

coolbeans111d 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.

thorstein111d 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?

RaidenBlack111d 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.

LordoftheCritics111d 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.

DivineHand125111d 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 111d ago
anast111d 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.

111d ago
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